Mergers and Acquisitions
by Lillith Evans
Summary: Tsukasa Domyouji, the lone son and heir of the Domyouji company has one job. To acquire and merge with companies that will help improve Domyouji Zaibatsu's standing. When his mother calls him in from a vacation to deal with a particularly hostile takeover he finds himself in the most difficult position he's ever been in, Tsukushi Makino's grasp.
1. Prologue

A/N: I've been thinking of this all day (I know I'm horrible) BUT ALSO I got to thinking what if Tsukushi and Tsukasa didn't meet when they were in high school...what if they met much much later when they were bitter adults...? And the below Prologue was born. This sounds like a super smutty story and tbh it probably might be but it's definitely going to have a plot...that's just going to come in Chapter 1 :D

Without further ado, the prologue that's been running through my mind.

* * *

"Take off your clothes," He growls approaching her with steps that thundered in this tiny excuse of a room and Makino Tsukushi dropped her jaw aghast as was expected off her, raised her hand in its tell tale motion to slap the living shits out of this demonic monster who only echoed his sentiment as he held her hand tight in his grasp, no doubt able to feel the betraying pumps of her heart struggling to stay confident in this situation.

"Excuse me?! Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I am a man of few words and a man of even less patience, I said take off your clothes Miss Makino and you have yourself what you came for."

"I refuse to stand here and be treated like some two-bit prostitute-"

He snickered in a particularly devilish fashion as his shoulders seemed to tower over her forehead and she felt the heat from his bare chest warm her already heated face. Any closer and she'd burst aflame. "Prostitutes ask for less than what you have and have far more charm. I'd rather characterize you as a a thorn in my side, a bad bone in my rib I wish to remove, like a rotten Eve. I've listened to you chatter on and on about the rights of the company you're working for and how I'm the son of the devil for even trying to do what makes the most logical sense- so let me show you Miss Makino. I am the son of the devil, and I am a horrible person and I have no issues with pushing you past what you're comfortable with. And I know while this is what you want, you are entirely too uncomfortable with this to make the move yourself so let me do it for you." His hand landed beside her face, not quite touching her skin. "And do you know why I'm so confident?"

She glowered, her façade as strong as ever because at the end of the day, no matter how her veins and her skin reacted to the touch of this man she knew in her mind he was a sick sadisitic bastard that she needed to stay away from if she wanted to hold onto her company and her sanity.

And yet her mouth betrayed her when she felt his thumb run slowly by the skin around her ear, expertly tucking away the loose strands of hair around her face. "Why?"

Tsukasa could have laughed but he settled for a smirk. He'd defeated her, the way her breath shuddered past her lips, the way he could practically feel the sweat off her pores and barely had to hold her heart close to him to feel how nervous she really was here beside him.

So he settled for a smirk, knowing that he, Tsukasa Domyouji, had succeeded. He always knew the prey's tell, and it was why he was such a great lawyer. Smart he may not be, but cunning, shrewd, and extremely good at the practice of satisfaction he was. It had got him everywhere and he would use it today to get to where he needed this girl before him, Tsukushi, to be.

His palm slid behind her neck as he brought her face close to his. "I see the way you breathe when we're together past a decent hour, and your fingers just barely smell like sex every time you come past I shake your hands like you need something to take the edge off if you're going to be spending three or more hours with me…now," His other hand trailed the side of her frame and she gasped. "I know the type of girl you are, I know you don't kiss people you don't like but I do and I love the idea of me taking the place of –"

She whimpered as she felt him crawl past the barrier of silk between her and his hand. She leaned against the door clutching the side of the walls he'd cornered her turning her back against the door. "Now Miss Makino, will you take your clothes off or would you prefer that I did it for you?"


	2. Chapter 1

The phone rang, Tsukasa took one one glance at it and it was immediately removed from his mind. Like hell, if that old hag thought he was going to be picking up her calls. After the stunt she'd pulled with him three months ago, he needed some serious space from that woman he called mother because of social decorum.

Which was why he was here, debauching and pillaging in Hong Kong, while his friend artfully managed their businesses on this side of the East China Sea. While he took a well-deserved vacation doing fuck all just because he could, so why not? "Is everything okay?" Candy of the week whispered into sweetly his ear, her fingers trailing the inside of his thigh, trying to entice him with her round brown eyes. This little Canto girl had crawled into his lap the moment he'd set foot in the lounge last Tuesday. And what a delightful little addition she'd been to their circle in the time he'd been here. He'd never seen a girl make Soujiro so uncomfortable before.

"Yeah, if he looks wound don't worry it's not your fault. Tsukasa is naturally a tightly wrapped wire waiting to whip out and injure someone." Said best friend answered on his behalf, looking at Tsukasa almost in an irritated fashion. There was a time in the not so far past that Soujiro had been the one who had women raining into his life effortlessly but in recent years since he'd gotten richer and his friend's fortunes had been little less than promising the tables had turned. And this girl was beyond beautiful, she inspired an awe like observance of her features…the type of face that would have launched an Empress of the past into a fit of jealousy, or the type to inspire an army of soldiers to willingly commit suicide on her behalf.

Thankfully in this day and age, all she could do was inspire a bit of jealousy between friends.

Tsukasa pondered that Soujiro's look of disdain was probably further enhanced by the fact that Tsukasa had addressed his own mental issues and gone to therapy for his anger, and Soujiro was still a fucked up sex addict at the end of the day but like hell he'd tell the womanizer his theory. He wasn't in the mood for Soujiro's more than powerful right hooks. "What's your name again?" She was beautiful yes, but she wasn't worth pissing Soujiro off that much. He might let her go tonight.

"Jolin." Akira couldn't help but remark if any man but Tsukasa had the gall to say this to the beauty before them she would have lost interest, perhaps even thrown a bit of a hissy fit but she only smiled ever more acqueisingly, he could see why Soujiro would be displeased with the way Tsukasa had transformed in the past two years since Shigeru left him. To Soujiro, women were sport, trophies to be flashed around to be cherished and treated tenderly and then thrown away when they least suspected it.

Soujiro must have thought it entirely unfair that Tsukasa often got to treat these types as crap from the start…but Akira thought it was even more hilarious that these women let him. That was probably the reason he never stuck around to see any of them longer than a week. "Nah, nah, let's just relax. Tsukasa whose call was that? Rui? He did say he'd come later because his meeting with a Chinese investor was running late."

"It's not important."

"So your mom then?" Tsukasa glowered at Akira, who was far too intuitive for his own good. "You know…at one point one of us will leave Tsukasa. We can't escape here forever."

"Be my guest, at any point in this evening feel free to take your leave and I'll see you when I see you." Sometimes Akira thought it was a good thing his friend got therapy, then other times he saw this guy. This was a guy Tsukasa never was when he was younger. He'd become cold, like whatever anger had fizzled out of him had taken his sensation to feel anything at all. "Now are you guys going to be little bitches or are we going to pour some drinks?"

The girl at his side immediately busied herself with the scotch in front of them and Soujiro furrowed his eyebrows in distaste when she handed him his drink.

"Don't you think you deserve better?" He spoke in Shanghainese, a dialect he knew for a fact both the other men didn't understand. A dialect he'd seen her speak to her mother on the phone when she walked away from their table for three minutes at midnight exactly every time they came here.

"Please don't pretend to understand…you won't…because you can't see that he is the best in this room from all of you." She responded with ease as she grinned widely handing Akira his drink. "He's honest." Then she got up from her seat on the couch, sat down in Tsukasa's lap which he took as an indication to bury his face in her neck. "KANPAI!" She cheered loudly giggling as she felt Tsukasa's now familiar lips trailing their way down her neck.

The men could only scoff and raise their hands half-heartedly.

* * *

When Rui walked into their spacious four room loft at 4:30 in the morning, he wasn't surprised to see Jolin and Tsukasa sprawled on the carpet covered in scant much…Soujiro and Akira being much more considerate of his eyes had gone upstairs to their bedrooms and shut the doors.

The men could afford everything they wanted, and if they wanted spacious apartments to themselves they could afford that too, but in Hong Kong where space was scarce and where their bonds of brotherhood always deepened they ended up living here in Lotus towers where they always spent almost inordinate amounts of time together.

He was just about to head up the stairs when Tsukasa's phone started ringing annoyingly. He saw Jolin move in her sleep, her face scrunching as she tried to cover her ears. Tsukasa beside her snored away unaware, he'd always been an extremely heavy sleeper. Rui was jealous of him, always had been but especially so since Shizuka had married another man last year. It was almost entirely too easy for Tsukasa to get a restful night's sleep.

Deciding to help her out he picked up the phone from its place on the breakfast counter and shook his friend slightly. "It's your mom," He muttered.

"You never fucking came."

 _To the same freak show I see every night where you guys pick up girls? No thank you._ Despite his thoughts, he kept his mouth shut and saw Tsukasa blearily nod and speak something even he couldn't understand.

A moment passed, and then another and then he hung up growling. "So-"

"So I'm on the next plane to Tokyo. Tickets booked and everything-" Sleep left his eyes and Tsukasa slowly rose from the floor, thankfully still in his boxers as he walked to the bathroom rubbing his face. "I'm out on the 8AM."

Rui snickered behind his hand which was not met kindly by his friends glare. "What does she need you to do?"

"What else Rui?" He sighed splashing his face with water. "I'm going to take down another innocent company for the good of the company. You should be thankful you never became a lawyer."

Rui scoffed. "And I'm surprised your brain turned out to be good for something other than coming up with 'Red cards'"

"Fuck off!" Tsukasa burst out laughing hitting his friend playfully on his shoulder. "Get to bed, tell the guys I'll see them back home."

Rui nodded. He wrapped his arms around his best friend patting him on the back. Rui was his rock, Rui was his wall. Rui was where he fell when everything went to shit. "Till Tokyo Tsukasa." Tsukasa's eyebrows perked up, the last time Rui he had said that they were standing at the entrance of the church that would be holding Shizuka's wedding.

Tsukasa still kind of hated her for it…only because he knew Rui couldn't. "Till Tokyo."

* * *

Tsukushi woke up like she always did. Irritated with her back, when had she gotten so old?

Oh right, when she found out that some big company was trying to take over her family's fledgling company and drive it into the ground…and like hell if she was going to let them do that. She'd invested every bit of spare income she'd had after finishing law school and hell if she was going to let some corporate asshole come in and take her parents for all the money they were worth.

She'd been planning on quitting eventually at her firm, the glisten and gloss being a lawyer had held for so long was starting to wear off the longer she did it…she'd been planning on growing the business with her parents and this would just speed up the proceedings.

They'd done well for themselves, from living in a tiny room together tightly hugging each other as they slept, they now had a modest sized house in suburban Tokyo, they had a central office that employed 25 people, and 5 coastal resort properties.

Six years ago if you'd told Tsukushi both her and her family would be financial independent within the next half-decade she would have laughed in their face, but being in the right place at the right time helped a lot. Celebrities from all over started visiting the tiny town of Tsuken in Okinawa and their business blew up. They renovated three times in their first year and managed to keep the cash flow strong enough that by the end of the year, they'd opened their second slightly more upscale hotel in the competitive Shimoda market at the edge of the Shizuoka prefecture.

As she turned on the water in her sink to brush her teeth the slightly more horrific part of their recent success story began to play in her mind. On the eve of their largest opening yet, in Kyoto they were shut down. Unexpectedly, with no warning the individual with who they were supposed to close their land deal with backed out and offered no explanation.

Tsukushi had been furious and ready to take him to court but her boss would not let her take her family's case pro bono and to be honest she could understand why.

"Tsukushi…" Yuki yawned from the couch. Oh that's right, Yuki had slept over yesterday after her shift at the bar she worked at. "Tsukushi, take a breath…you're pink." She spat out her toothpaste, wincing at the hint of red that tainted it. God she'd brushed so hard she'd bled.

"No, GOD Yuki where do they come off thinking they can do this-" And Tsukushi barged into another rampage gargling. To be honest she almost pitied her friend, almost. Yuki had spent much of last night after she came home at 4:30, supplying an ever supportive shoulder to her friend's furious tears that tumbled out in a wine induced haze.

"I love you but- you need to take a breath, because if you sound like this in front of Domyouji Zaibatsu, there's no way you'll walk out of there a winner and you know it." Makino huffed feeling her friend's hands rub her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. "Now what are you going to do again today?"

"I'm going to tell them to fuck off."

"Right," Yuki had not wanted that answer so hugged her friend and patted her back comfortingly like an aunt that was berating an imbecile of a niece. "And how are you going to do it?"

"With class, and sass and a legal cut to their throats."

"You forgot ass! That's also great by the way, pick a dress that works with that!"

* * *

Tsukasa managed to resist the urge to yawn as he entered the Domyouji head office. "Brief," Tsukasa muttered under his breath and his assistant beside him immediately launched into the brief that she'd been trying to give him for the past three hours since he'd landed but refused to listen to.

He got the gist of the case, of course he did. He'd handled countless cases like this for his mother before. There was that natural beverages company that actually showed promise he'd driven that into the ground to save her soda and alternative beverage empire. The bed sheet company that used real cotton and managed to gain enough of a foothold in her heart market- the list was endless.

"Takeover is for Makino Resorts and Spa, founded by the entire Makino family but currently helmed by Haruo Makino. This hotel chain has grown so rapidly, many insiders have been looking to invest in their hotel/vacation concept that has literally zero expenses to the client and gives them endless perks such as access to key local events, partner travels and even matchmaking services."

Tsukasa almost spat out his coffee. "You can't possibly be serious…"

"Entirely…and the business is booming, they've married three couples and have countless others offering testimonials of the best time of their lives. The market is responding positively with more and more people taking trips alone to connect with someone-" Sakurako coughed as he looked at her doubtfully. It sounded like she'd been on a trip herself. "The truth is sir, Domyouji Zaibatsu just can't compete with such a define unique and well catered solution…we're a mass solver sir, not an individualized experience."

"So my mother would like to buy it out and drive this idea to the ground. Got the gist. Thanks Sakurako." He threw her a soft smile and saw his assistant jump and smile bowing.

"My pleasure, will you need me to accompany you in the room?"

"No I can handle this alone, did you say the daughter would be representing them?"

"Yes Makino Tsukushi, stellar lawyer. She's actually responsible for putting away Oribe Junpei for his incorrectly filed kidnapping case…."

"And she's probably saved countless murderers and made sure they walk so long as they promise never to do it again." He rolled his eyes closing the file folder in his hands. "Great, I get to work with a criminal lawyer. That's new. That'll be all Sakurako, you'll be needed again in- say 14 minutes? I'll have her signing the paperwork by then I'm sure. Until then, go get us both coffees okay?" He handed her a bill of 5,000 yen each.

"You and Miss Makino sir?"

"You and me Sakurako." He winked at her enjoying the way the red splattered on her cheeks as she smiled and went on her way. He missed Jolin and Sakurako would do nicely while he was still in Tokyo.

He stood outside conference room 618. This room was exclusively his and exclusively for this purpose. Business owners didn't know it when they came in here but they were signing away their right to an opinion other than his because Tsukasa didn't lose and unfortunately his win was often defined by other measures out of his control.

"Tsukasa Domyouji, so they're not playing around are they?" He turned to look behind him to see a mousy little female behind him, her bangs covering the edge of her eyebrows, her voice holding a tone resounding of restraint in this lobby of his. "That's right, I did my research. The son of the big woman up there, man she must really want me to shut up."

"Makino Tsukushi?" She didn't come off like a criminal lawyer, she didn't wear boring suits and clack around on righteousness and justice. No Makino Tsukushi was dressed in a beautiful wine colored figure hugging, body flattering turtleneck dress that was doing wonders for her surprisingly small features all over. Did she do this on purpose? Stashing away some personal grey suit she normally wore to work?

"From what I understand, my name is probably all you know about me so far, and you're probably thinking to yourself that you're going to go in that room and have me done in 14 minutes but let me tell you something -"

"You overheard my conversation?"

"Oh sorry, no I was walking by and you were being a little overconfident, I think you're trying to overcompensate but meh what do I know?" Was she making an indication on- oh how dare-

But he couldn't finish his thought because Makino was far from finished hers. "I'm going to do you one better." She glanced at her wrist. "We'll be done in the next thirty seconds, you know how I know that? It's because I walked in here to take a look at my competition. Oh and there's no way we're settling with your company right now and pushing your agenda as it currently exists because trust me would be against your best interests. We know you've been going behind our backs and speaking privately with our investors to try to get them to reduce their investment in the past six months to diminish our value so when you try to buy us, we'll sell for cheap. We will sue you for obstruction to us operating our hotels, and libel within the industry. Additionally you'll find here, a list of terms and conditions we would require you to alter from your standing proposal and new ones you'd need to add for us to even consider looking at this again."

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh I'm sorry, was I talking too fast? In criminal, we don't have as much time to waste. Let me put it a bit more succinctly." She walked straight up to him, pushing her face in his. He was sure it was supposed to serve as an intimidation tactic but all it made him do was feel like he should have asked Sakurako for a tall, tall glass of water. "Get your shit together, or Domyouji Zaibatsu's little prince is going to finally fuck up a deal. And god wouldn't that be a great day?" Pushing the new folder in his hands she turned around, her hair flipping and her heels clacked away on the marble lobby and she left the building.

For the first time in years, Tsukasa felt a bubble of anger free itself from his carefully compartmentalized feelings.

Tsukushi Makino, she'd known exactly what she'd been doing, exactly how she'd catch him off guard and that…little…bitch.

The hell he wasn't going to take her down.

A/N: And that's about all the exposition I can take. I promise the next chapter will be more exciting! But I had to set up starting points for all our characters so it took me a little bit of text!


	3. Chapter 2

"So I heard she wrung you hard and hung you out to dry,"

"Not unlike you and Tsubaki." Tsukasa replied with the all the fake enthusiasm he could muster after spending the last three hours reading over Makino Resorts financial statements from inception to date. "I don't know why you called me up here."

Kaede Domyouji didn't make a sound.

Tsukasa was entitled, and a bit of an arrogant prick to work with but Kaede could only blame herself when it came to the attitude of her son so she tried her best to not pick fights with him now. After all, no matter how much he wanted to rebel against her at the end of the day here he was…sitting where she'd asked him to. He was like a puppet, he fell whenever she wanted him to directly onto knives she kept specially brandished for him. For that she'd allow him whatever little tantrum would satisfy his need to imagine he came out on top. "I looked over the proposal Makino-san delivered, and it seems she's working independently on the case without the backing of her firm…and it could be considered a conflict of interest. You can contest for another lawyer to be assigned the case. We can force their hand in hiring someone we approve of."

"That's underhanded I won't do it. You're already handing negotiations from the investors end, she'll cave before long. We've stopped their cash flow and they've invested a lot into that Kyoto opening. That investment isn't turning over from what I've read and the interest on their loans grows exponentially, they haven't made payments in the last three months. Just give me another week. I'll have her down."

"That's underhanded?" Her eyebrow raised skeptically. "Tsukasa, that's what you and I are. We're underhanded, we play cheap tricks and because we don't get caught up in the question of morality, we're here." She waved her hands around the luxurious office. "So, I've arranged for you to go to one of her company's events and speak to the senior partner Tanabata-san and insist that they ask her to drop the case. If she doesn't- she'll lose her job. And they'll gain us as a client. I give you full freedom to use the seal of the company to close the deal." She slid the seal across the table and Tsukasa felt like laughing.

"Are you trying to invite her to sue you? That might have worked with anyone else but not with a lawyer mom. Most people are too dumb to think beyond their four walls, but Tsukushi Makino would come up with a likely quite reasonable plan to throw our name in the mud in the media and cost us countless more million dollars than we're willing to spend on acquiring her. So…" He slid the seal back to her. "Let me do it my way. For a week. Then lets go your way…but if you insist. Fine, I'll go to this company event." He got up from his chair and swung his jacket over his shoulders. "It'll be nice I'll get under her skin a bit." Kaede immediately began coughing loudly and at this Tsukasa couldn't help but laugh. No matter how much time passed, she still thought she could control every facet of his life. She never learned. That's why Shigeru had left…well that and he had been an asshole to the only girl he'd ever loved. "Oh relax old lady, get your head of the gutter."

"TSUKASA-"

"See you never!" He raised his hand in a non-committal wave knowing that unfortunately that would never come true for him.

* * *

With Sakurako on his arm, Tsukasa strolled into the reception Makino's company was holding with some of its key clients to support raising funds for climate change. Mind you half the people in this room were probably responsible for said change.

From the far corner of his eye, he saw the man his mother had ordered him to talk to and made a seriously strong effort to find the real cause of his coming here tonight, Makino Tsukushi. But she all but appeared missing.

 _"_ Thank you for inviting me here Domyouji-san," Sakurako's eyes glimmered with happiness and she looked like the picture of beauty in a slinky nude pink dress that made her normally slim, stiff figure appear like that of a ballerina, lithe, flexible and graceful.

"Thank you for being available so last minute Sanjou-san." He replied back kindly, his eyes lazily glanced at her when he saw in the far distance! Ah there she was! And perfect, she appeared to be alone in a dark corner of the room. What a perfect place to ambush her. "But you know we're here on business I must attend to with the Makino resort case, so please excuse me. You may have to leave alone."

"That's perfectly fine!" She agreed amicably. Sakurako was like his own personal little doormat so he wasn't surprised when she didn't mind. Were he a slightly better man he would have asked Sakurako if she was okay being left alone in a strange party and perhaps may have set her up in some conversation with the surrounding circles around them but as it was right now Domyouji was only concerned with one thing.

Makino Tsukushi. Wearing this beautiful white dress that cut just below her knees, the picture of modesty.

She was unassuming. He watched as she played a bit on her phone and looked around, a girl from her far right tossed her a distasteful look that only Domyouji himself could see because he was really looking. So she didn't get along too well with her co-workers, that was never a good sign. Mind you he himself rarely had coworkers to get along with, usually he was the only lawyer handling the case like a freelancer. Whenever he needed anything he just called in one of the guys.

He saw her giggle at her phone and felt his eyebrow irk up in confusion. She had nothing to laugh about…and well if she did, she wasn't going to in about 30 seconds.

Makino couldn't stop snickering as she looked at her phone. Kazuya had just messaged her he wasn't going to make it to the party, he was the worst plus one ever. Since high school, Kazuya had been obsessed with her and since high school Makino had tried her best to resist his lack of charm. _Gomen nasaii Makino-san! I don't think I'll be seeing you soon, I have a flat tire and I'm stuck on the highway. Could you call someone for me?_

Seriously who wasn't going to smile a bit at that? The guy was utterly helpless, and in some ways it was kind of adorable. Not in the way that she'd date him of course but Makino had always enjoyed taking care of people. She sent a note to an auto alliance company she used for her car and assured him someone would be on the way.

Just as she was putting her phone away a voice drawled arrogantly into her ear "Boyfriend?"

"Joke." She responded turning around quickly to see Tsukasa Domyouji smiling in an eerily honest way. "May I help you Domyouji-san? Makes sense you'd be here."

"We're actually not a client of yours yet but-" Tsukasa smirked but before he could say another word someone else called out his name.

"Domyouji-san!" Makino's boss fast approached and Domyouji cursed his mother silently in his head. Hell she'd probably all but signed the deal and this guy must have been beyond anxious already to sign them on as customers. "How are you?"

"All well and good Tanabata san-" He proceeded to stressfully engage in useless chatter, Tanabata stayed entirely too long and Tsukasa was forced to discuss inane things like how his kids are, and whether his own mother would be attending Wimbledon this year and how Tanabata-san sure hopes they can have a great discussion on how Federer will perform and has she been able to lock him down in a suitable endorsement yet- and on and on and on this old guy went.

Tsukushi smirked behind her hand, watching Domyouji's face grow tenser with every second that passed. She couldn't interject as easily into the conversation, but she couldn't let the guy be tortured any longer either- no matter how amusing it was to watch his eyebrow twitch. "Sir, I think Gou-san was looking for your earlier. He asked me to tell you but it slipped my mind until now," She interrupted and saw Tanabata-san give her a look that said she'd definitely be hearing about this later.

Well, as it was she couldn't care too much. "Well…you just let me know if you need anything Domyouji-san! Anything at all." He looked pointedly at her, which made Makino frown as she saw him look back at him.

"Ah, that won't be necessary, but Domyouji Zaibatsu thanks you for your consideration and we do look forward to working with you after the glowing reviews Hanazawa-san has given you." Domyouji offered him one last handshake and Tanabata-san was on his way away from them. He let out a sigh and looked at her, thankfully. "Thank you for that."

"From what I heard you have no patience for nonsense…so what was that?" She questioned slightly curious.

Domyouji took a sip from his champagne flute and finished the glass putting it down on the table beside them. That's what he used to be like, it was true. No one could push his buttons, hell no one could talk to him and it had been amazing to see fear in people's eyes just as they looked at him. "Your boss is going to talk to my boss…simple as that," That and he was trying his best to keep his anger in check, he didn't just burst out rudely at people anymore- but god he missed it. "Accompany me to the drinks table?" He didn't wait for her response and since Makino didn't have much to do as the odd one out at this party she decided to follow him for no reason other than he was a decent source of entertainment.

Plus, when else would she have a casual opportunity to study her opponent? "So you have a boss?"

"Since I was born. You don't?"

"Right your mother…how is she?"

"Hell bent on ruining you, but she can't handle that herself...so here I am. Disrupting your party, trying my best to make sure you don't get fired because she'd like to take the easy way out." His honesty was a little jarring but Tsukushi only sighed a deep and long sigh that indicated she was exhausted. She didn't react violently like he'd expected her to with claims of how she'd make sure they were taken to court for how dirty Kaede Domyouji played her games.

"Must be nice to have such loyal lackeys." She teased instead.

"That's what I keep telling her!" He joked and was pleasantly surprised by how appeasing Tsukushi's smile appeared to him.

She had a kind of soft sadness on her face as she looked around the room leaning against the table as she picked up a champagne glass herself and took a large gulp. "She doesn't need to go that far you know…I'll probably leave soon anyways." She crossed her feet over each other and took another gulp. "You know what you imagined being a lawyer as?" Domyouji expected that she probably wanted him to say that he did, but he didn't. He didn't want to throw off this tentative cease fire that they had between them either though. He was just starting to lull her into a false sense of security…so he decided to stay quiet. Be the active listener, women loved that didn't they? "It's supposed to be kind of great, you're supposed to end up being that person who drafts the way the country moves forward, you fight for justice and the professors make you feel like the world is on your shoulders and you can bear its weight and-"

So this was the type of girl she was…just and righteous and the type to get highly disappointed when reality hit her hard in the face and she saw how ugly people really could be. "And it's not like that?"

"You tell me…I spend most of my hours running errands for seniors, dealing with assholes who find themselves being sued by ex-wives and those are just the nice guys! The bad ones are in trouble with the government for breaking environmental laws, insider trading, bribing, murder-" She huffed out little puffs of air filled with a hate she felt for her job. "I'm not that type of girl. I can't stand on that desk and watch-"

Now he really couldn't help her because she'd all but described everything he'd helped to clean up on behalf of his mother in the years since he'd become a lawyer. He'd never had any rosy starry-eyed dreams of being a lawyer though. He knew why he was 'accepted' to Todai Law and had no misunderstanding about the tasks he was expected to perform. So Domyouji couldn't help but interrupt. "Then why didn't you become a prosecutor?"

"They're even worse!" Makino huffed again this time with a disdain that made her eyebrows furrow and Domyouji ponder whether she realized that it made them look like one long line. "So focused on putting people away, they ignore the innocent people and drive them to mad acts of passion and the number of prosecutors who make these sickening deals with these bribers they're all just waiting for a big payout-" Suddenly she became highly aware that she was talking to exactly the type of lawyer she hated and cleared her throat nervously. There was no need for Domyouji Tsukasa to be so attentive and, dare she say it, friendly with her to the extent to hear about her inner turmoil on her career choice. "So yes, your mother needn't worry. I'll be out of here on my own in a little bit."

"I'm glad." She frowned. "It'll make taking you down a little easier. If you don't have an income I can pressure you into a cheaper deal to save your family's fate." She was about to yell at him when she saw an irritating entertained look in his eyes. The guy thought he could tease her!

"Don't you dare-"

"Tsukushi-san, would you like to dance?" He turned to face her full on, moving just the slightest bit closer than she would have liked because she could all but feel his breath on her cheeks.

Now that they were so close to each other, Tsukasa admired the way her eyes blinked quickly, and he saw the slight firming of her jawline and he couldn't help but wonder if this is what she looked like when she was about to kiss someone. Tense and scared but doing a bang up great job of covering it up.

"Aren't we already dancing around each other?" She shot back in as polite of a rejection as she could backing into the table she was practically sitting on now just to put some healthy distance between them.

"With our words, sure, but it'd be nice to see if our bodies could keep up with our tongues." She almost spat her champagne out but she managed to swallow with some difficulty patting her chest. "Oh come on, Tsukushi- I'll have you know I'm rather good at dancing and you know what they say about men who dance."

"The same thing they say about men who toot their own horns a bit too much?" She shot back crudely and saw whatever pretense of nicety he was offering her flash out of his eyes for a second. By the time it was back it was too late, she could tell now. Tsukasa Domyouji was not this nice, no he was acting...and she'd almost fallen for it. "Plus I'm not that great of a dancer, I'll have you know."

"So let me lead you- it'll be a nice lesson for the future." He grinned down at her offering her his hand again. Like a suspect in a criminal trial she narrowed her eyes at it, trying to prompt a confession of guilt. Domyouji watched her look at it ever more doubtfully and knew every moment that passed it became more and more unlikely that she would take his hand she made the decision for her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the dance floor without her permission.

"What are you doing?" She squeaked as he turned around and whipped her around, wrapping his arm close around her waist. Now that their bodies were flush against each other, he could feel her heart pumping against his chest through the thin fabric of her dress. Every limb formed to his shape as she tried unsuccessfully to distance herself from him.

"Do you usually ask questions where the answer is more than obvious? We're dancing Tsukushi-san. You should quit being a lawyer. Tsukushi felt her body turn to brick. As promised, Tsukasa was more than skilled enough for the both of them. He managed to lug her clumsy figure around the floor with relative ease, keeping her on her toes as he flipped her over and over and she couldn't help but feel dizzy as they ran through the room quickly, matching pace with some of the better dancers in the room. She felt the attentive eyes of people in the room around them and tried to back away again.

Tsukasa felt her shift and looked down at her to see her frowning up at him. Tsukasa found himself smiling ever more. Something about irritating her, pleased him greatly, god she should never find out how much he found himself enamored with the way her lower lip jutted out just begging to be pulled out in a fury or pushed back in with force. "Are you usually so pushy?"

"Of course, people don't know what's best for them."

"And who made you the god, judge and jury on what's best for a person?"

"You'll find out on Monday." Tsukushi made a move to get away from him again as the song came to an end but he only held her closer bending his ear to her face. "Ready to run away?"

"This is highly inappropriate." She conceded and looked at him with some lack of emotion for once in the evening. "It'd be great if you could let me go now." He considered declining her request but in the situation they were in, with her coworkers and no doubt his mothers spies in the room, she was right. This was inappropriate regardless of how much he was enjoying himself.

"Well- I think this brings an end to my evening too then. I really was only here to talk to you." He let his hands slip off her waist, happy to feel a softness remained in his hands like he'd soaked his hand in memory foam and the feel of Makino Tsukushi remained on him.

God he needed a screw, this plain little thing was tempting him? Seriously? "Didn't you come here with a girl?" She asked off handedly.

"Sakurako can take care of herself, she won't mind." He replied back rubbing his head. "Being nice to you was extremely difficult I hope you appreciate that...and don't expect it to last."

"Yes of course, thank you for pressuring me into dancing with you." The sarcasm in her tone of voice didn't go unnoticed. "See you Monday, Domyouji-san."

He leaned forward to kiss her hand but she pulled it out of his grasp rubbing it protectively frowning. So instead he chose to come closer to her face and pressed his lips lightly to her cheek, pausing to blow words into her mind that would no doubt stay entrenched until she saw him again. "I look forward to seeing that frown on your face with bated breath.

As he smiled and walked away Makino couldn't help but feel she'd have been better off spending the night with her phone.

What had just happened?


	4. Chapter 3

"Welcome to my humble abode, Makino-san, after you-" He appeared unassuming and unthreatening but Tsukushi narrowed her eyes carefully anyways as Tsukasa Domyouji held the door open for her and she walked in with her briefcase. She was careful to gingerly walk in her heels because they were digging into the backs of her feet after the long walk over from her office, sometimes she really should just take the cab but she couldn't bring herself to use luxuries like that easily and at this time of night the buses always ran painfully slowly. "I have to admit when you called to tell me that you would be coming this late I was-"

"Yes I understand how inconvenient this would be for you but I thank you again for moving our meeting to a time that I could fit."

"Yes, your firm is probably drowning you in work aren't they?" She growled unwillingly and saw the man in front of her smirk delightfully. "Well I didn't make that chess move so there's no need to be rabid with me."

"Doesn't change the fact your queen is the one attacking my knight and I can hardly keep up with her. She can move anyway she wants." Just as Makino mentioned moving she felt her ankle twist and cried out softly.

Tsukasa grabbed her arm steadying her out of reflex and felt a small lump lodge itself between his mouth and his throat when her eyes locked with his. Immediately he let her go and snorted. "Don't feel so bad, at least you're not her pawn."

"Shall we get to work?" Tsukushi felt the need to be extremely professional even more after their strange exchange. If she was professional, she could definitely maintain a safe distance from this man and that would keep both her and her fledgling company with her family safe. "Please pass over your counter offer."

"We've conceded to giving you 5% more equity as non-voting preferred shares with a higher dividend yield of Domyouji Zaibatsu in exchange for your father foregoing any directional right to the resort or Domyouji Zaibatsu."

"Of course," She rolled her eyes laughing putting the paper down with more force than he'd expected from the tiny human being in front of him.

He faltered for a second, trying to determine the best way to put this clause into real words. "Your father- well he just isn't the type of man who would suit our type of operations here."

"No you're right," Tsukushi agreed as she read through the offer. Tsukasa tried to maintain his composure but he was a little bit floored with how well she was taking the idea that his company would be deposing of her father shortly after acquisition. "I can concede that someone like him wouldn't fit in with you if we were to take this offer. He actually has a heart. I couldn't handle him working here either."

Ahh….so that was where she was coming from. He smirked and flipped the page on the next part of the offer. He couldn't disagree with her but he did want to see if she really thought that way, even about him after he'd been nothing but accommodating towards her. "So you think we're all heartless?"

"Aren't you? Clause 2 in section 15 indicates that not one member of our existing or past staff including the chairs and executives can choose to work in the hospitality industry for the next 5 years. Is that the longest non-compete clause you've ever heard of or what?" She smirked as she read through his handiwork, eyebrow raised, head nodding along. He couldn't help but feel smug as he saw her smirk as she perused the rest of the text, admiring his skill and tenacity in getting his job done. "You might as well have added in that Domyouji Zaibatsu is patenting the idea and never using it-"

"Clause 36 in the same section! Glad we're on the same page Makino-san. I have to say you're really impressing me." He smiled proudly and Tsukushi couldn't decide if he was just trying to make fun of her or whether he was actually this overjoyed with himself.

"Say, Domyouji-san…can you answer something for me?"

His phone buzzed so he found himself otherwise engaged with reading Soujiro's text message indicating he was to rush to the end of this meeting. Besides all she really needed to do was take it back to get it signed by her family and the major shareholders of the company. He didn't really want to spend Monday night with Tsukushi Makino of all people. "Sure- but I'd like this meeting to be over in the next three minutes because-"

"What ruined you?"

"Excuse me?" That got him to put his phone down and take a closer look at the little Makino who looked like she was taking her shoes off? What on earth was she getting at? "Getting a bit too comfortable are we?" The snide tone in the edge of his voice did not go unnoticed.

"You know, I walked here…I walked here because I have limited money to waste on you considering all of my parents income is now in limbo because of the Kyoto hotel freeze…I walked here and I hurt my feet in these stupid heels because I didn't keep runners at my desk. And I had to deal with the hand that was dealt to me." She put her feet up on the chair beside her wincing as she saw the large red welt on the backs of her feet, followed by blood coming out of the tiniest of tears in her skin. Tsukasa felt his stomach turn and twist into knots the more she continued to speak. "So what ruined you? At what point did you look at people and their lives and see figures and numbers instead of dreams? Where on earth did you learn that it's okay to do that to someone whose fighting for their lives while you try your hardest to end it?"

Tsukasa raised one eyebrow pointedly looking at her ready to mouth her off but Makino Tsukushi could care less as she appeared entirely too fascinated with her ankles. He stood up to walk over to her desk and couldn't help but hiss in pain even if he wasn't the one with the blood leaking past his heels. "Holy shit, where'd you walk here from? Nara?"

"I got this by working my ass off to get where I am today so companies like you can come and take everything away from me and my family."

"You don't have to take the offer. You can send it back-"

"But don't we?" She gingerly stood on her foot wincing as she leveled herself. "At some point, won't there be no other option, right?"

He was silent for a while, Makino saw his normally slipped on façade of kind lawyer with a heart of gold drop from his face. His eyes narrowed and he groaned and then when he opened his mouth he said the thing she least expected. "How bad are you hurt?"

"What?" Of all the things she said, that's what he noticed? When she was pouring her heart out on the struggles her family had faced this is what he noticed?

"Come on," Without asking for her permission Tsukushi found her fingers were now entrenched with his. They left the room, the carpet outside cushioning her swollen heels in a way that she couldn't help but let out a moan in relief. Tsukuasa clenched onto her hand tighter as she struggled to keep pace with the towering figure who appeared to run through these hallways. "I guess being poor means you can't afford the bus either?"

"I needed the time to cool off before I came here and yelled my head out at you because of your mum. When is she going to come do her own dirty work?" For the second time this evening he stopped, thankfully in front of the door to his private office as he twisted the knob.

"Miss Makino, you may as well come to terms with that because I rarely see my mother myself." At that she snorted as he grabbed a tissue and a bottle of gin he kept hidden in the back of his desk drawer. "Do you not believe me?"

She took a seat on the couch by the window and saw him follow suit. "Why would I?" Catching her by surprise, the young Domyouji heir pulled her feet from the ground into his lap. Her mouth slacked open, but shell shocked she couldn't seem to find the words as he rubbed the soaked tissue into her legs and she yowled loudly. He felt her muscles tense under his fingers. "Have I ever given you a reason to believe I'm a liar?"

"Can I be truthful? You don't exactly come off all that sincere…and this…is uncomfortable." She tried in vain to pull her legs off him but he held them extremely strong in his grasp somehow brandishing some sort of miracle salve lotion that was making the burning sensation she felt in her legs subside. "What is this about?"

"What is what about?"

"You can't tell me you usually take your oppositions to the dance floor or rub alcohol on their injuries."

"Normally they aren't as challenging as you...and they're a lot more predictable." She felt her cheeks flush as he threw her a cheeky smile. His response did nothing to quell the questions inside her head. "I really didn't spend time with my mother as a child, and I still do my best to spend as little time as possible with her. I garner it helps me feel like I'm not her child but the truth is I am and you're right. I don't know anything about what it's like to have dreams because all I've ever been is a figure to those around me. So I can't help it, I look at everyone and I see a dollar sign attached, even you Miss Makino." He pushed her leg upwards to examine his handiwork, the swelling was calming and the blood on her skin was all wiped up. He turned to look at the face of the woman attached to this body and found her staring at him her head tilted to the side. A few moments passed and he let his eyes slide slightly downwards. "You know, I am done now…you should bring your legs down because at this angle if I bend just the slightest I can see up your skirt." She squealed immediately and brought her legs to her chest like a child. "Shy?" She didn't respond except to stare out the window. "Like no man has found his way up your legs-"

"Certainly not without my permission." Somehow she found herself snickering with him and had to admit to herself reluctantly that part of her enjoyed spending time with Domyouji Tsukasa and she could only blame it on the idea that she spent too much time working and had not had a decent date in years. And yes, sadly this pseudo-agreement was the closest she had come to a date in too long.

A fact she was becoming extremely aware of every time he grabbed her hands, stared at her a little too closely, or reminded her why he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Thankfully for now he seemed to be looking at his phone which allowed her to have ample time to admire the way his strong jawline tensed reading the message. Despite her best efforts, her mind wandered to what kind of message it was- maybe it was from his girlfriend yelling at him for being late because of work-

If she was being fair though, something about Tsukasa Domyouji came off as screaming he would never allow himself to get involved with some girl.

Not that he was gay…but you know. Something about him screamed commitment phobe and ambitious to a fault to her.

All the more reason to stop watching the way his adam's apple was bobbing up and down. Wondering what else could make it move as fervently as it was right now..."So I guess this means we're done for the night…and I should try to catch a train other than the last train for once in my life." She started slowly to level herself on her feet and saw him immediately start up from his seat. His hand fell on her shoulder and her heart jumped into her throat. She immediately threw it off and tried to steady herself.

Domyouji thankfully didn't seem to be too shaken up by the quick way she'd reacted. "I can drop you home…I think for now you should give your feet some rest."

"They've been through worse." She smiled back kindly and saw his eyebrows furrow. "But thank you for your concern." She began to hobble towards the door and Tsukasa couldn't help but stare after her incredulously.

Any woman would have been happy to get a ride home, this late at night especially. And it wasn't like he was going to try anything suspicious…he spoke out of some genuine demented form of concern for his opponent. For exactly one millisecond, Tsukasa pondered the idea of grabbing Makino Tsukushi by her peculiarly attractive waist and throwing her over his shoulder. He certainly couldn't imagine her resting calmly in his hands if he lifted her into his arms, and piggy backing her was not an option-

But grabbing her over his shoulders and bringing her back to the couch for a slightly more salacious scolding was becoming more appealing the more he thought about it - in fact he was just about to go through with an almost automatic urge to do so when he heard Makino Tsukushi open her mouth "Are you okay?" Her voice broke through his thoughts and he found himself blinking foolishly.

Thankfully, as soon as that odd image of his face on hers had entered his mind, it left. "I'm fine, let me at least drop you to a subway stop."

"That I'll agree to." She bowed gratefully and smiled up at him. Tsukasa knew she was waiting for some kind of gesture from him that would be kind and reminiscent of the odd character he'd been playing with her so far.

He just stood their stoically looking at her until he walked past her leaving her confused in his wake. He rubbed the back of his head.

He couldn't let whatever that was happen again.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry team! I was out of the country and before that I was preparing to leave the country. Hope you all enjoy the double update as an apology :)

The moment he'd walked into Golden Orchid Hostess Bar he was treated like royalty. He should be, after all he was considered a diamond client and he spent enough money here in the past. The mama-san cried out in happiness "Nishikado-san!"

"Mama-san!" He bowed lightly and respectfully though why he should he wasn't quite sure. The woman was filth compared to him. "How have you been?"

"We've missed you while you've been away. Come with me, we've hired the perfect girl for you."

"Is there a girl like that in this world? I've never been satisfied with just one you know." She smirked understanding the soft innuendo left unsaid. "Regardless, your choice is exquisite so I'd be happy to see the new talent and judge her suitability to the bar."

"You're too kind." She didn't look at all pleased that he was practically running the place but that was the benefit you got when you were a diamond client that basically kept the place operating. Hell he'd even bailed them out of some tough periods and made sure all his company men came here. "Please have a seat, I'll have Yuki join you shortly.

"Yuki." Her name rolled off his tongue rather nicely and he imagined what her voice would sound like for a second. Soft like powdered snow he imagined, pale skin and bright sparkling eyes. Sure enough his assessment proved correct. Her demeanor would no doubt be kind-hearted, and she would be a soft spoken sort of woman. The kind who'd make the perfect politician's wife.

This had become a bit of a game for him he realized. Predicting women before he met them, most of the time he was correct but if you'd slept with as many women as he had maybe that wasn't luck so much as fact that he'd come to know the tell of every woman. Unlike what Mama-san had said there was no one woman who could satisfy his urge to understand the entire encompassing gender.

Or well maybe that was the more polite way of putting what he actually wanted to do.

"Hajimemashte Matsuoka Yuki-desu." She bowed low and deep, at least she'd been taught well there. He always appreciated it when an adequate amount of respect was shown his way. Slowly, he nodded and saw her take her seat as Mama-san walked away back to the front of the bar. "May I ask what your name is?"

Maybe he'd been too presumptuous but he would have hoped she would already know it. "Hajimemashte Yuki-chan, Nishikado Soujiro-desu." He tilted his head slightly forward and he saw Yuki peer at him closely. They were silent for a minute, maybe two and Nishikado had to wonder why exactly Mama-san had thought he would enjoy the company of this mousy, surely beautiful and shy woman. She was most certainly not something he ever seeked out for himself, because in silence he was uncomfortable.

Almost as if lest he say the wrong thing, the leverage Yuki would have against him would be endless.

After a few more minutes of silence, and watching her hands wring themselves wild in the silky fabric of her dress Soujiro was about to open his mouth to kindly ask her to leave his company for someone a little more naturally sociable.

Matsuoka Yuki, however, spoke first. "Why do you come here?"

Another question he would prefer not to answer. The Mama-san was looking at him smiling brightly, he could only muster up a half fake grin, the screws on the side of his cheeks tightening with the pressure of false emotion. "I have the time, I have the money. Why not?" Hopefully that was enough to get rid of that question.

"Ah the simplicity of it, but you could spend your money on a lot of things. You're spending it on me."

Not entirely by choice he wanted to speak up but he never was rude or callous with women, and Yuki hadn't done anything to offend him so much yet that he would just be openly rude with her. Unlike some men he knew, he remarked a curly haired boy coming to mind. "I need the time to myself, to think," That was true. He did bounce a lot of ideas off the women who had worked here. Most of them failed but that was hardly their fault, they were his ideas at the end of the day. His name on the line. "To talk."

Yuki's smile only grew wider as she nodded. She was silent for a moment longer than he found comfortable. "That's funny."

"What is?" He hadn't said anything that in his mind would be considered hilarious but she did look like she was snickering to herself at some inside joke at his expense.

Mama-san had to be kidding. "It's just thinking and talking you know they're completely different, one might even say that in some ways they're opposites so I find it strange you come here to think and talk because then I wonder if-" She kept her mouth closed. "But I've said too much, sometimes Mama-san recommends me to people who I don't think can handle my brutal honesty."

Soujiro scoffed…whatever she'd been about to say he could take it! "In the spirit of brutal honesty then, if you're in the business of telling the truth, I really don't think you should be in the professional service industry."

"You're probably right but it seems like my flavour of medicine is well appreciated in this club and is quite handsomely paying my way through graduate school so who am I to complain Nishikado-san?" She stood up first and he felt his body shift towards her on the seat as she backed out of their private enclosure.

Despite himself, he couldn't keep the slight edge of desperation out of his voice. He had to know, he was a bit selfish with knowledge that way. To be honest even between the four of his closest friends he'd always considered himself the smartest. "What is it?"

"What is?" She replied back innocently tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, showing off a pair of diamond earrings he was sure another diamond sponsor had volunteered for her.

"The thing," He spat angrily. He didn't usually let his emotions get the better of him but something about this conversation was getting increasingly infuriating for him. "This thing you think I can't handle?"

Her lips stretched past her mouth, teeth carefully sealed away lest they say something inappropriate to the largest donor in their club. "You're here to talk, and you're here to think and I can't help but wonder why you wouldn't do the same with the friends you don't pay for…or indeed if you even have friends you'd really consider that close to you. When did you start paying for the opinions you wanted to hear around you?" Quickly shuffling she bowed and went back to Mama-san.

Five minutes later another bubbly girl found her way glued to his side, she recognized him and asked him to call her at the end this time. But the rest of the night, his mind was plagued with that one thought. Was he that obsessed with acceptance?

When the night came to a close he looked for Yuki but she'd already disappeared, and he couldn't pick her brain any more. At least not for free he was sure…and he hated going home alone. That should get his mind off the most destructive thought he'd had since Sara had left him.

So when he drunkenly stumbled into the love hotel with the hostess and spent the rest of the night watching the way her body danced on top of his, why was it all he could see today was the disgusting look Sara had thrown him when she'd found him cheating on her and broken up with him the next week.

He grabbed the girl on top of him and flipped her over, his hands crawling up her skin till they found their way around her neck and she gasped arching against him ever so tightly.

 _That's the problem Soujiro…you don't understand anyone. Not even yourself…and you'll throw yourself into the snake pit because you think your opinion is the only one that ever matters._

* * *

"You're kidding!"

"Not at all… it was insane Yuki."

"Well…that can't happen again! I refuse!" Yuki iterated on her behalf and Tsukushi couldn't help the bubbles of laughter that leaked past her lips. "I'm not kidding Tsukushi! It doesn't allow you to have a lot of leverage when you negotiate!"

"You're telling me." She yawned as she pointed her toes upwards, her eyes lingering on her ankles as the sensation of Domyouji Tsukasa's heavy hand returned to her skin. She groaned again covering her eyes. "I need a date, or I need a night out-"

"Well…" The silence that followed Yuki was one she recognized. The one which reminded her that her ex-boyfriend who she'd represented in a wrongful kidnapping case was actually the worst sort of human and it made sense that since something like that Tsukushi treaded very lightly when it came to relationships. "Do you want to hear about my day?"

"Sure thing!" Tsukushi grinned encouragingly as Yuki giggled despite herself.

"Well, first I got my research paper back, the one on the correlation of Sadomasochism in a Sexual Addiction Sample? We're expanding my trial to include more participants and trying to highlight the degree in which an overlap exists!"

"Fuck yeah!" Tsukushi yelled happy for her friend, raising her hand for a high five to which Yuki just chuckled and laughed back. "No pun intended of course. How was work? You must have been on a high."

"Well when I told my boss about the paper, she actually recommended I try to do some analysis on a customer oddly enough. It was…strange. I told her it wouldn't be right but she pushed me on it." Yuki felt an uneasiness return to her stomach when she imagined the way Nishikado Soujiro had glared at her. When she'd told the other girls about his relatively cold behaviour they were shocked, Nishikado Soujiro was all money and smiles as long as you were acquiescing and self-deprecating to a certain point. Nishikado Soujiro liked feeling better than you, more than other men who came to revere the hostesses Nishikado was of the other sort who liked to be reminded he was better than them that he could throw them away and that they should worship at his feet to be given the opportunity to satisfy his needs.

"So are you in some sort of long-term relationship with this guy now?"

"Heavens no, Tsukushi how do you think this stuff works? It isn't like the dramas." Tsukushi stuck her tongue out, giggling as she put some popcorn in her mouth. "Well, he would have to request me again but I doubt he will. He seemed a little irked by my preliminary analysis that he has no friends whatsoever."

"That really is sad, but what prompts you to think that?"

"Sad, isn't it…. And he wants something rehearsed, everyone who comes to a hostess club wants a show of a life that isn't real. It's escapism. But he's different Tsukushi, he controls literally everything at the club. He isn't a spectator he's trying to be a director and I think that's what's pissing Mama-san off." Yuki scoffed. "He even demands that he picks out the new girls, but luckily I was hired when he was in Hong Kong."

"Geez…Yuki, are you going to be able to psychoanalyze him if he's sick of it?" Yuki actually wasn't entirely sure if she would get to spend time with Soujiro again. She didn't think she would but she couldn't help but feel like he was definitely someone in need of her help, even if he didn't know it. "And do you even want to…the guy sounds like a bit of a sicko."

Once upon a time before Yuki had decided to make Psychology her calling, Yuki might have agreed with Tsukushi but all she could see now was a cry for help which she supposed didn't mean anything better because no one was more dangerous than a human not in control of their own mind. "Well, I can only help those who want my help so I guess we'll have to wait and see."


	6. Chapter 5

Domyouji Tsukasa was on a blind date, and how he was roped into this he had no idea. He thought that it started with the snide line on his mother commenting on his lack of ability to lock Makino Tsukushi into any sort of realistic legal arrangement that was binding with her company.

 _I'm not paying you to order take out with her you know that right…regardless it's time we started thinking of your marriage._

She'd thought of it once and already failed miserably. He'd thought that would have taught that woman a lesson that when it came to relationships she'd best leave it alone because she'd only cause more of a mess than she was willing to clean up.

The woman in front of him was eagerly chattering away as he leaned closer to feign interest in her words. "So you see, our fathers have been friends at the squash courts for years but isn't it hilarious we've never spoken till now? Well once though I did come to a Domyouji party but you were with-"

"Yes." He interrupted smiling widely. "Obviously." He didn't like people saying her name. He'd come to control his anger for the most part but hearing his ex's name always brought up old feelings that he'd very carefully kept locked up and he always found it more difficult than necessary to put them away.

It was just easier to not think of her. She was brash, kind, and a strange sort of person in the circle of the elite of Tokyo but she had been imperfectly perfect and in some ways she reminded him a lot of another girl he found himself spending more and more time with, unwillingly mind you.

He'd come to realize that was the reason he had flashes of heat when Makino Tsukushi was around him. It would come in odd waves, like when she rolled her hair into a bun, or when she would breathe heavily when he said something particularly distasteful.

Really actions that from any one else but her should have disgusted him but because they reminded him of his ex he couldn't help but feel his heart jump in his throat and he hated that he didn't have enough control over himself.

Because Makino was not that girl. Not at all and the sooner his mind stopped confusing her the sooner his body would learn what was the appropriate way to behave with her, which was to crush the little weed under the heel of his freshly polished Oxfords.

His phone buzzed on silent and the girl continued to prattle on, not noticing his preoccupation with his device as he read Rui's text message. _How's the date going?_

 _Like most omiai's go. Like fucking shit on a horse stick._

 _I wish I could swear like you._ Tsukasa cracked a smile and saw the girl smile back at him. Ah how adorable, she thought he was smiling because of her. He would allow her misconception to rest. It wouldn't do to treat her too badly, her father was probably involved in some deal the old hag needed pushed through.

 _Can you call me?_

Like clock work his phone rang and he opened his phone up. "Hello?"

"Why'd you need me to call you?" Rui's voice carried through the phone. "I'm in a dinner meeting."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl shift closer to the edge of her seat in concern. "Is everything okay?" She mumbled and he nodded understandingly.

"Hai- yes Tanabata-san you said it's an emergency? What's happen to my sister? She needs my help right away. Where are you?"

"La Vecchia…but Tsukasa I'm with someone and you'll have to play nice if you come."

"Okay I'll be right there, thank you for calling me. I appreciate your help with this." Tsukasa turned grinning back to the girl now with the widest smile. "I'm sorry something horrible has come up." God this wasn't believable at all was it?

Why the hell did he care? He just wanted out and spending an evening with Rui without Soujiro and Akira sounded like heaven to him right now. He needed time with the only one of his friends who wasn't completely sex crazed. (Though he was being unfair to Akira when he said that)

And La Vecchia was only about a 15 minute drive away anyways.

* * *

"So you're leaving the firm?"

"Next month it's finalized but I just wanted to go over the details with you in your office Hanazawa-san, this dinner- it's too much." Tsukushi blushed. If she was being honest, this was exactly what she'd dreamt of many times after sitting in Hanazawa Rui's office. After speaking with Yuki last week and countless meetings with Tsukasa that were pulling just a little too late into the night she thought she'd visit her most favoured client.

When she was placed on their account two years ago their financials were a mess and on purpose, Hanazawa-san's father had been embezzling money into offshore accounts from the company and the only way to resolve the issue while keeping the company in a relatively safe state had been well to plead guilty for a reduced sentence.

So now Hanazawa-san's father rested in a white collar prison fit for kings and his son ran their business. The past year or so had been relatively quiet but she'd wanted to make sure she settled her business with all her clients as she prepared to exit the firm. "Nonsense, you saved my family."

She managed to awkwardly blush and cough out. "Well, I put your dad in prison."

Rui scoffed. "Not like he didn't deserve it. He put us in a situation that was almost irreversible. We would have been bankrupt if it wasn't for you."

That was another thing about these rich people she'd inevitably ended up working with, their disengagement from their parents was something she absolutely couldn't relate to. The way Domyouji spoke of his mother, the way Rui spoke of his father. There was no way she could imaging speaking that way to her family. She'd definitely get slapped.

Still this had been the dream so in someways she was happy that at least once in her life, she got to sit across from the marble-eyed prince and have dinner with him like a real life princess. "Ah I have a friend who needs my help sorry this'll just be a second-" She nodded to indicate she had no problem with him making the call and she saw him mumble to his friend and glance her way worriedly.

When he ended the call he sighed and she was shocked when he leaned over the table in a surprisingly affectionate manner and held her hand. "Tsukushi-san, I apologize but my friend will be making his way over here." She tried to keep the disappointment out of her face but she wasn't sure she did a convincing job because he kept explaining. "I would have declined but he sounded stressed and he's trying to get out of a rather worrisome omiai."

At that she almost spat out the sparkling water in her mouth. Did people still have omiais? This time she really had to put effort in to make sure she didn't laugh right in Rui's face, after all she was sure he probably participated in omiais himself. "It's no worry at all... I'd be happy to have your friend join us." Was that too much…maybe…why should she be happy there was no reason at all...maybe she looked like she was trying to hard. Divert the conversation to something work related Tsukushi, she chastised herself. "Do you have any questions about your account with us beyond what we've discussed Hanazawa san?"

"Well to be honest, I would have liked for you to handle the transition legal documentation for our senior counsel next month but since you're probably swamped between all your clients we can forget about that for now." Ah, how considerate all the other clients had more than dumped their share of work on her.

"I really appreciate that Hanazawa-san-"

"And then it's not like we can't keep in touch, I do have your personal cell phone number right?" She quickly scrambled for a pen through her bag and scribbled out numbers on a napkin and handed it to him smiling. "Thank you…but an email may have sufficed." Though his words were intended to cause embarrassment in any self respecting female, Tsukushi could only giggle girlishly.

Ah well there was no reason to be worried about looking eager at this point, still she had to admit the idea that Hanazawa-san wanted to keep in touch with her beyond their lawyer-client relationship had her heart fluttering away in her chest. Maybe this long-time crush with his beautiful demeanor and even more handsome face would come to fruiti-

"And what the hell are you doing here?" She heard someone say behind her and turned around to see the devil himself glowering down on her. She couldn't help but feel like she'd been caught red-handed.

Tsukasa Domyouji looked positively livid with her.


	7. Chapter 6

Thankfully the conversation never really turned quite to her after Rui explained that Tsukushi was practically his own personal lawyer and Tsukasa raised his eyebrows even further but he didn't say anything else. He did pull up a chair from the table behind her and sit right beside her though. He quickly explained that Tsukushi was the lawyer who was making his life so difficult in acquiring her company.

Hanazawa Rui just smiled on kindly and Tsukushi felt her heart lighten after the heavy way her chest had felt when Tsukasa's voice had interrupted her dinner with Hanazawa-san.

The conversation took regular turns for them then and she may as well have not been there but it was interesting to see their dynamic that was for sure. Tsukasa complained, and Rui complacent tried to turn his attention to a silver lining…and she wondered if they were always like this. "The old lady's punishing me." He finally called out. "It's not even that she's setting me up but she's setting me up with absolute bimbos who are obviously only in it for the money."

"Well maybe she's afraid after the last time, maybe she wants to keep you distant."

"She's doing a good job, there's no way I'll let those idiots even get close enough to the family." He said it in a relaxed tone of voice but Tsukushi's eyes had sidled to his lap where one of his hands was tense so tightly in a fist that the tips of his knuckles were stark white. "What are you looking at?" He asked so gruffly she practically yelped but she managed to keep her composure and roll her eyes.

"Nothing…" She confirmed but was minutely aware of how Tsukasa casually threw an arm over the back of her chair as he leaned forward to keep his conversation with Rui up.

She ate her food in silence and smiled where appropriate laughing where it made sense. Then thankfully the whole ordeal seemed to be on its way to wrapping up when the check came and Tsukasa could sip on the last dregs of the whiskey in his glass. "Let's go find the losers. I'm sure Soujiro's rotting somewhere waiting for us to show up-"

"Ah you can go ahead Tsukasa, I'll drop Tsukushi-san home and come after."

"Ah, no it's okay really I can take the bus!" A snort came from beside her that made her squint beside him. "And what are you snorting at?"

"Nothing!" He smiled brilliantly, his white teeth glimmering with unsaid words that made her want to grit her smile in place and punch his canines right out of his mouth. "How are your feet anyways? Should I take another look?"

"No…thank you." She managed to bite out, painfully aware that Rui was flickering his eyes between the pair of them. "Thank you for the offer."

"Suit yourself." Tsukasa shrugged. "Ready to go?"

"Tsukushi-san, I'm sorry again. It was inconsiderate of me to invite Tsukasa without asking you- we'll do something else privately sometime." He looked so truly apologetic and kind that she couldn't help the blush that rose on her lips as she imagined what she could be doing with him privately and just managed to shake her head about though in approval or in rejection even she couldn't tell you.

"And I'll see you tomorrow." If you listened just a little bit closer to Tsukasa's tone you could make out that he was more than healthily irritated that Rui had bothered to reiterate that she was worth spending time with. She couldn't help but glower at him but he didn't seem to care because in a moment he'd reached for his jacket and started walking out of the door.

Rui looked after him shaking his head but all he could manage to do was bow as well and then run to catch up to his friend. The truth was, she thought as she let out a sigh, being alone felt kind of nice after the stuffy experience of being between the two men. There was no reason for her to feel suffocated but they were both tall, intimidating and for all intents and purposes both had a considerably better standing in the world around them than she did.

She wasn't that far from home, she'd probably get home in 45 minutes or so if she walked so she decided to trudge along the foot path enjoying the fresh air filtering in her lungs.

She couldn't help but recall how she'd had to deal with the uncomfortable tenseness in Domyouji Tsukasa the entire meal. With Rui, there'd been such an ease in the way he'd continued to talk but Tsukasa looked like someone had forgotten how to move his joints, every movement felt structured and every word placed.

She didn't have time to mull over her thoughts much longer though because a honk resounded loudly in the quiet road. She turned her head fearfully to see the window of the Tesla X slowly droop downwards and Tsukasa Domyouji poked his head down so she could see him through the gap. "Get in the car."

"Excuse me?"

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, just get in the car. I'll drop you home." She edged backwards from the car but seeing the indignation on his face she couldn't help but smile. "Come on, seriously I'm not going to bite."

She contemplated her two options, one would be to walk away from him and irritate him before the meeting tomorrow where she'd ask him to rework the agreements third sub section yet again because she still wasn't happy with it. The other would be to placate him and get the difficult conversation out of the way…and you know spend time with him.

She felt her eyes widen as the thought passed through her head. "Are you getting in or not?"

She gulped and nodded gingerly. "Thanks, yeah."

"Good," He agreed and she sat down buckling her seat belt taking in the luxurious interior of the car. She couldn't help but let her fingers graze the seat warming button as she turned it on and felt the warmth spread through her body. After the long day she'd had the heat was positively wonderful on her muscles. "Long day?"

"The longest…I had a lot to cover off with Hanazawa-san."

"Yeah the entire way to the parking lot that's all I heard. 'Be nicer to Tsukushi!' or 'She has a lot on her plate!' or 'She's not like us Tsukasa, she's not totally fucked up by her parents!'." At that she had to laugh catching Domyouji's eyes as his gaze strayed away from the road for just a second. "Am I taking a left or right turn here?"

"Nope just keep going straight." She offered up helpfully feeling whatever preconceptions she'd had to keep herself guarded in this car fly straight out of the sunroof as the heat worked its magic on her mind. "I don't think that's true…when I first got into Eitoku all my parents saw was the opportunity to get me married off to someone like you."

"How Cinderella. You know gold-digging is illegal in sixteen countries..."

He felt his heart jump in his throat when she winked at him. "Only if you get caught killing the husband." The silence echoed for a second as Tsukushi wondered whether she'd said something too strange and Domyouji wondered what on earth was wrong with him. "Keep going straight. Speaking of money, I wanted to ask you, what would your thoughts be on my father getting a subset portion of the ongoing revenue stream from Hotel Daisho?"

"I'd say it's a reach. Your company has no directional right on Hotel Daisho." The light in front of them was red and he turned to look at her, half hoping she'd do something incredibly out of character like wink at him again, maybe stick her tongue out. "What are you so scared of anyways? Your father is a grown man. We'll give you more than enough to compensate him. He can work in whatever he wants just not as a hotelier and not at our company."

She sighed. He was, but he was bad with money, and Makino knew it better than anyone else because she'd eaten just rice for months and there were days when she had to rely on just the food she could snake away from her part time job. She was also permanently sick of ramen, but continued to eat it every day simply because of convenience. "I'd just like for the income stream to be split out vs lump-sumed."

As easy as it was for him to feel like he hadn't had a sip of water all day in this car with her, he still wasn't going to concede to anything else. He already felt like he'd given her a better deal than her or her company deserved. "That can be handled as well but why did you want Hotel Daisho?"

"No matter how I look at it, it isn't fair." She pouted and turned her hand right. The wheel followed and thankfully, they turned into her street.

"Makino Tsukushi you really must be a naïve lawyer if you think anything about what we do for a living is fair. Let me know when I need to stop." He iterated as they drove past the buildings. They were still a bit away but she was hoping the rest of their conversation would flow in silence but it was not to be. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and felt an odd sensation blanket his heart when he saw her frown. "How's this… you give me till tomorrow afternoon and I'll see if I can pull something fairer out of the old lady. Now, since you asked me a question…I can ask you a question right?"

The yes was barely out of her mouth when he spoke up anyways. Obviously uncaring on whether she wanted to be asked the question or not. "So…Rui's your type?" Whatever ease she'd felt in the short conversation she'd had since getting in the car disappeared as she felt a knot tie up where her belly used to be.

"Excuse me? He's a client, I'm more professional than that. It was just a business dinner." Even as she said it, she knew it was a bald-faced lie. Still, on Rui's end it must have been the truth.

"Right…your boss blushes that hard around me too! That's how everyone from your firm acts with their clients right? I should warn him because I'm totally getting the wrong message."

She felt a bubble of anger boil to the surface as the car stopped and she unbuckled her seatbelt with more force than required. "Well you're just his type! You're both perfect assholes. How can you even ask me that?"

"Because I want to?"

"God just when I was starting to think of normally?"

"Normally?"

"You know…bearable, like decent company. Like someone who isn't the spawn of the devil herself." She unlocked the door but wasn't all that surprised to find that it locked when Domyouji pushed the lock button faster than she could say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. "You know keeping me in this car against my will could constitute as kidnapping..."

"Just for that threat, I won't keep you longer than 30 seconds."

"Assault then."

"I haven't touched a pretty hair on your head but if you'd like me to, I'm more than happy to take this conversation to the back seat." Her eyes flew open as she looked at him shocked that he'd been so brazen with his language. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straighter. She blinked quickly and tried to calm her fingers because they were getting that uncontrollable urge to wring themselves together itself. "Besides I don't think I said anything that abusive. I could have pushed you a little harder, asked you what I really wanted to ask you." His voice was a drawl now, thick like honey that washed over her ears.

This was getting more and more salacious. She was aware where this could head, and there was that part of her mind that was telling her to stop and get the hell out of the car because Tsukasa was fake. He would do anything to get what he wanted and it appeared that he passively wanted her…but whether it was her head or heart on a platter so he could manipulate either she wasn't quite sure. Tsukasa was an animal, his reputation preceded him so she had to be careful.

Yet there was that other part of her- she was curious. She wanted to prop open the box that was Tsukasa's mind just for a second and take a peek inside. The more rational part of her reminded her that whatever twisted inside of his brain was likely to be worse than his mothers and would make her want to run away. What sort of future could she really have with a Domyouji anyways? Even trying to entertain the thought she found her brain had a hard time coming up with the fantasy. It was just too unrealistic.

In the end, the small little devil that loved to tease her boundaries inside her personality won and she let her own eyes droop lazily as she let the slightest hint of a tease out of her lips. "And what would that be?"

"Are you sleeping with him?"

To Tsukasa, that silence was an admittance, to Tsukushi it was an appalling question for him to even consider asking her. She'd expected something less jarring, something a little more seductive – just as quick as she'd fallen into a daze around him she snapped out of it. "What?" Her incredulity left no room for interpretation.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't make myself clear? Are you fucking my best friend?" He replied with no hesitation whatsoever in his voice. None of the honey was present either, apparently he wasn't pleased that she hadn't come right out and pleaded for her honor.

"How can you even think you can ask me that?"

"Because I've never seen Rui with a girl that wasn't Toda Shizuka and I've tried. Trust me, we've all tried. Girls just aren't Rui's thing but apparently you are because he couldn't keep his eyes off you tonight. You should know, Rui's in love-" Despite herself, everything Tsukasa was saying about his best friend was giving her a balloon of hope in her mind. "And it's not with you." Wait a second…what?

She just blinked back dumbly. Now she was even more confused. "Where is this conversation going…?"

"I just wanted to tell you…give it up. It's not going to work out well and you're not his type. He'll fuck you, he'll wipe you off and he'll keep walking." She looked at him incredulously as he laughed. "You know…you haven't once told me I'm wrong. At the very least you have one of those irritatingly middle school crushes on the guy."

"Are you usually this nosy?" She muttered feeling the heat crawl up her neck and flush on her face.

Tsukasa leaned closer to her and she hated how her breath hitched in her throat. "Yes…and you still haven't answered my question."

"I'm not okay! We're really not like that at all. We're just- what we are now." She practically shrilled and saw his eyes close as a satisfactory smile floated on his face.

"Good and don't even bother. It's not worth you getting hurt. Trust me, I'm doing you a favour."

"By mortifying me?" She shrilled back.

"Of course. I need to keep working with you, and if you and Rui become a weird thing I can't do that. It's too strange." He grinned throwing an arm over her casually. "Glad we had this conversation!"

"That makes one of us!"

"Ja ne!" He grinned brightly waving his hand and she felt her eyes move from side to side. What had just happened? "You can go now."

"Are you dismissing me?"

"Would you like to curtsey?"

The only response he got was the slam of a door in his face.

As soon as she left the car, he felt the smile go slack on his face and he looked after her.

He glanced at his phone. _Where are you? We've been waiting for you for 30 minutes._

 _Be there in 5._ He responded quickly, rubbing his face as he let out an aggravated sigh.

Why the hell had he said those things to her? She was nothing. She was worse than nothing, she was nothing and poor. Two things he prided himself on not looking at.

Makino Tsukushi was making him do crazy things.

 _"To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind…there's no comfort in the truth…pain is-"_

"Can we get another Dom Peri here?" Soujiro's fingers played on the bare skin of the girl beside him and she hummed softly, he could practically feel her vibrate from within as she leaned into him nodding.

"Of course Nishikado-sama, just a second." The fake tanned, brunette raised her hand to one of the passing waiters who stopped by and took their order.

Tsukasa hated coming to places like this, he hated hostess clubs in general but Soujiro reveled in it. He wasn't sure what it was for him but Tsukasa had never fancied himself the type of guy to pay for anything related to him enjoying the company of a beautiful woman.

Distasteful as his own personality could be, he'd never pay someone to tolerate it, though he probably should have considered it. He hadn't had a good fuck in ages, his own doing of course, but times like this when he didn't have someone to pet like Jolin by his side and someone like Makino Tsukushi to tempt him he felt it more. He leaned back against the couch, feeling the crown of his head land on the plush top of the couch. "Perk up Tsukasa," Akira spoke as he grabbed the old fashioned he'd ordered before and sipped it.

"I've been looking over paperwork for the past week and a half and I can't find it." He growled as the water approached again, this time with a girl in tow. "And this club is playing the most incessantly catchy 80s pop hits. Why is that?" He hunched over his knees this time covering his yawn.

"Ah, that's our specialty on Tuesdays!" Tsukasa looked up to see a bright little thing smiling at them. Short curly hair framing her small face with an articulate nose, she looked like the definition of adorable. Definitely not one of the girls who fit any of their styles but Soujiro had especially hailed her down from the pimp woman who ran this club. Then he'd proceeded to ignore her completely so she sat sandwiched between an almost asleep Rui and a happily buzzed Akira. "Don't you like this one? I have to be sure, when I walk out the door- oh how I want to be free- how I want to break free." He had to admit, her voice wasn't half bad.

"Isn't it ironic then that you're singing about being free and we're paying for your time." Akira responded with ease as he nodded to her when she dropped the recently ordered Dom Peri on their table. "Thank you, for this though."

"You're totally welcome okyaku-san!" She grinned brightly. The girl beside Soujiro seemed to be getting antsy the longer she was here so Tsukasa saw her throw a careful look at her, as if asking her permission to stick around. Soujiro's girl huffed and she took that as a clear sign that she was no longer welcome. Right, she'd have to split the tips with her if she stayed too long. "Ah well, so I'll leave now."

"Yes, you will- bye-" The other hostess started but Akira quickly dashed in not quite ready to let her leave yet.

"No I'd like you to stay. Pour us a drink! We're drastically outnumbered anyways and Soujiro always outnumbers the female company. You can keep Tsukasa and I company as Rui's asleep." A well timed snore emitted from his nose confirming Akira's assessment. The girl giggled, also adorably, how wonderful. "Though I don't know how exciting we'd be compared to him."

"I resent that." Tsukasa volunteered at which Akira only rolled his eyes. "I'm plenty exciting, I just spend all my days keeping it to myself."

"That's okay, I don't think I can handle that much excitement anyways." She giggled again, it was even cuter this time. Tsukasa found himself squinting at her. What the hell was she doing here? Weren't girls like her supposed to be at maid cafes? "I'm a mellow type of girl, more so than I think Nishikado-san is used to." Soujiro looked up from where he'd been bent into his female companion to narrow her eyes at her. "Ah, I don't mean anything by that. Gomen nasaii." She added quickly taking in his features. "But it is nice to meet your friends." Soujiro just huffed and looked away. "You're Mimasaka Akira right?" She volunteered on Akira's behalf who looked healthily impressed. "You're Tsukasa Domyouji, and that just leaves Hanazawa Rui sleeping right here!" She casually ran a hand through his hair. Tsukasa got irritated as he saw a blush on her face again, what was it with Rui and women? Was it how much he couldn't seem to care about anything that got them?

Tsukasa raised a suspicious eyebrow. "And why don't you just list off our zodiac signs and place of birth and the name of our parents too?" The stranger in front of them tensed, until Akira spoke up and her shoulders relaxed.

"Relax Tsukasa," Akira laughed at his friend much to Tsukasa's displeasure. "This isn't a deposition."

"To be honest, I wasn't that big of a fan but who wouldn't know about you guys? You were practically featured in PopTeen with your paparazzi photos all the time when you were in school." Her laugh this time was nervous as Soujiro appeared to lean forward to listen to her. "I mean I was- so sitting with THE flower four is kind of awesome."

"Ah Soujiro-sama you had a band?" The hostess perked up at her chance to participate in the conversation.

At that Tsukasa was astounded. "We had fans?"

"OF COURSE! And I was almost club president at my school once too! But then I failed when I forgot your zodiac sign Domyouji-san, to be honest you were never quite my style. You still kind of aren't." With her brash admission, his friends burst out laughing and Tsukasa felt the vein in his forehead start to throb as he let out a barely audible growl. The past week had been all about testing his patience and this evening had already done little for his nerves.

"I didn't pay to get insulted-"

"BUT WE LOVE IT when we pay to get him insulted!" Akira snickered as he threw a casual arm around shoulder and it was made entirely clear, to everyone within the club. Whoever this little thing was, she was claimed now. The hostess mama threw him a nod, to which Akira nodded understandingly. He'd pay for this lady's company. "Well thank you for reminding us of a time we'd much rather forget! It's only fair you share your name with us now isn't it?"

"Ah I'm such a ditz, I can't believe I forgot to say my name." Akira may have thrown his arm around her but Yuki still turned between Tsukasa and him equally determined on engaging them both equally. Tsukasa should have told her not to bother but at the point he could use the distraction, even if he wasn't quite 'her style'. "Matsuoka Yuki-desu, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" She bowed her head lightly. "So what can I help you with tonight? Forgetting an ex-love? Partying for the sake of a wild night? Mothers driving you up walls? Consider me free therapy!"

"My my, don't you come with a lot of perks?" Soujiro spoke up sarcastically. "Hana, all we do is spend all night together. I should be getting a discount." Hana flushed as Yuki frowned at his careless words but decided to keep her mouth shut.

"I'm studying to be a psychiatrist, but the fees are too much for my family and the bank considered me a credit risk so- BUT this isn't about me." Yuki broke off nervously, almost grateful for the protection of Akira's arm beside her. Soujiro was looking at her so venomously Tsukasa saw the way she fearfully gulped and leaned back into Akira's frame.

"Well, I don't have any of the above problems, my sex life, my love life and my career are all going well- matching my horoscope to a T of course." Akira rolled his eyes sarcastically as Yuki smirked trying to hold back a giggle.

Tsukasa snorted, she wanted a problem. She'd get one. "Here's a problem for you Yuki-" She turned her head attentively. "Let's say it's the first round, I've been put into a corner, angled by a person who I must destroy and this person has all but bowed their head and graciously asked for mercy? What do I do?"

"You attract more flies with honey than you do with vinegar Domyouji-sama," Yuki grinned almost too knowingly. "And the way you've phrased it, looks like you want to offer her mercy."

"I never said it was a girl."

For a second she looked a little caught off guard but she played it off well. Still Tsukasa had seen that little falter in her eyes. "Ah, but they always are."

Soujiro burst out laughing. "You know, she's not entirely wrong and this, my friends, is why I've never been to a therapist."


	8. Chapter 7

"Where did you say she wants to meet you?" Akira asked laughing as he saw Tsukasa scrambling through his high rise apartment in the neighbourhood made for people who hated anything that wasn't obscenely priced, Roppongi Hills. "You can't be serious! You can say no you know."

Tsukasa froze turning around to look at his friend with a gaze so squinty, a grumpy grandmother would be jealous. "I know that." He rolled his eyes and continued rifling through his luggage from Hong Kong. God, he knew he'd kept his passport in here somewhere...so where was that blasted thing?

"Do you? Makino Tsukushi says jump, and you jump!" To illustrate, Akira pretended like he was going to jump and then shrugged it off laughing. "So you're going to her family's resort for the next three days."

"She said her father insisted." He mumbled low, half-hoping Akira wouldn't hear because he was 100% certain that would enlist another peal of laughter from his most sane friend.

By all logical measures, he should have told her to fuck off and that he wasn't going to come to the resort...but part of him was curious. Why was the Makino resort concept so popular? "Meeting the parents! Wow, are you guys moving fast! Almost like you have another engagement heading your way."

"Fuck off Akira." He finally let out. "It's not like that. This is serious."

"Oh wow...engagements are serious bro."

"I meant about the case you ass fucker." Akira's eyebrows were raised. "Okay fine, I'll take that back but I'm going there to get a sense of the man, the family, see what makes them tick put them down, finish the case so I can jet off again to wherever the fuck I want away from that woman whose messing with my mind-" The list of things Tsukasa went on to say tired Akira just hearing them.

Since his break up with Shigeru, the man had been unhealthily obsessed with running away from his mother.

It was counter-intuitive considering what had conspired in the past little while since Tsukasa had broken it off with her. "Just to confirm we're still talking about your mother?"

"No, of course not! I'm talking about Makino Tsukushi!" At that Akira laughed harder, maybe he had to give Tsukushi some credit, at least she'd managed to get Tsukasa's mind off his mother. No small feat considering how single-minded his best friend was. "Found it!" Tsukasa rose up triumphant from his messy luggage, an ecstatic grin gracing his face so even Akira was shell-shocked at how happy Tsukasa looked at the prospect there was no obstacle to this impromptu vacation with his lawyer nemesis.

"Tsukasa…" Akira mumbled softly as he observed the way the man moved erratically around the room, oddly reminiscent of a Tsukasa who used to nervously rattle around the house before a date with Shigeru. "You okay?" He asked softly as Tsukasa turned to look at him confused.

Akira was oddly reminded of the time that Tsukasa yelled at him when he'd burst out laughing at how much gel it really took to straighten out the Domyouji standard curly hair. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" He scoffed back and shook his head. "Is your head okay? You look like someone punched you in the stomach."

Akira could have corrected him on his body part usage, but he chose to let it ride. "I'm just worried…"

"Don't worry, I know I'm going onto her turf but I won't let her take advantage of me."

Akira was 100% sure that Tsukasa really wasn't aware of how that came out sounding. "Sure, you won't." He clapped a hand on his friends back. "Come on, lets get you to the airport. Oh…and by the way for future reference. For domestic flights? You don't actually need a passport."

Tsukasa's widened eyes and slowly growling mouth was more than enough reason for Akira to feel his heart lightened as he laughed. "And you let me look like that for an hour and a half?! Are you even my friend? I should disown you! I should buy out your companies and bury them! I should-"

Akira had long learned that there was a switch in his ear that could turn off when he didn't want to hear his friends complaining, it was the only way he could stand them really. So he continued to smile at Tsukasa, nodding pushing stray long hairs out of his eyes as he got into the car and let Tsukasa's yells drown out behind the radio.

He just hoped Tsukushi Makino knew what was heading her way...and more than that he hoped Tsukasa had the self-awareness to realize he'd let the little lawyer girl under his skin in more ways than one.

When Tsukasa stepped out of Naha airport he wasn't quite sure what he expected.

Oh who was he kidding? He expected to be greeted by a bright sunny Makino Tsukushi in a bikini, but even he knew that was unrealistic.

At the very least, he'd expected her in one of those tight fitting dresses of hers, glaring up at him and stalking away as soon as their eyes touched each others. She'd then expect him to race and keep up with her, which he would of course but he'd do so very unhappily.

Or maybe her father, screaming his name begging for mercy in the middle of the airport attracting all sorts of unsavoury journalists.

He'd expected really anything but this kid in a Hawaiian shirt with a mini surfboard with his name on it followed by a massive smiley face with a tongue sticking out. The moment their eyes caught each other's the kid started howling wildly and ran straight towards him, throwing his skinny arms around Tsukasa's body.

If Tsukasa hadn't been so confused by the situation he would have thrown the kid a punch right in his head. "DOMYOUJI-SAN!" He continued yelling, in his ear…how…pleasant. "Domyouji-san! Oh we've waited to meet you so badly! Nee-chan's said so much about you! You're just like she said you would be."

Ah right, Makino Tsukushi had a brother didn't she? Thankfully, he managed to worm himself away from said brother and looked down on him. "And how did she say I'd be?"

"Ah, so in your own world that you couldn't see me right in front of you!" His eyebrow twitched. "She said I should come up to you and get your attention. Figured hugging you was the best way to get you to see me. Can't ignore someone whose touching you inappropriately can you?" He wiggled his eyebrows and Tsukasa felt a little bit violated as the kid smiled bashfully rubbing his hair. "I'll take this. You're our guest! We can't have you feeling bogged down for any reason!" He grabbed his suitcase so quickly from his hand, Domyouji had no hope of contesting the little Makino boy.

He seemed so unlike his angry, defiant sister- he couldn't help but wonder if they were actually related. "What's your name?" He asked, if the kid was going to be so hospitable the least he could do is find out his name.

"Ah sorry! I'm so out of it! My name is Susumu, Makino Susumu. My official title is Director of Customer Experience at Makino Resorts but I like to call myself _Director of the Fun Times_." He proclaimed proudly after doing a pronounced twirl and ending with the briefcase right by his face as his hands landed on his chin with a bright smile. "I'm still working on the movie deal…but I think it'll come through."

Crickets could have cut through the tense silence between them as Tsukasa looked him up and down.

"Good luck with that."

Tsukasa started walking towards the car, no idea where it was, but he figured Susumu would run and catch up to him. He was happy to see he was not wrong. He almost shuddered taking a look at the beat up Toyota pick up truck and restrained himself.

He could get in this car. Sure, he could get in any car. He was not scared of beat up cars like this that could break down on the highway any second.

As they started to exit the parking lot, and found themselves on the road, Tsukasa couldn't help himself from asking the young Makino child. "Where's your sister anyways? I thought for sure she'd be the one picking me up."

"Ah she said she'd rather not see if you if she could avoid it." The young Makino it appeared had no sense of tact. Tsukasa started coughing loudly. As a droplet of sweat broke out on his brow, he could almost certainly blame it on the wild heat of the afternoon sun. "Plus she's busy, she's running today's beach volleyball tournament with the singles tourists!"

He couldn't help but feel his eyebrow twitch…she didn't pick him up because she wanted to play volleyball? With single tourists? "I thought you were director of fun times?"

His question was sarcastic but the oblivious Makino youngling caught no hint of it in his voice. "I am! But last time I played volleyball, I broke my nose." He grinned brightly and pointed at his nose. "I actually had this fixed up. I think I look way better! What do you think?"

Tsukasa shrugged. "I haven't seen you before your nose job."

"Oh right! We should show you baby pictures when we get back then! Tsukushi was UGGO. Like a real rat. Mostly because for half her life she pretended she was a boy." _Please don't._ Tsukasa wanted to say but somehow the words got stuck in his throat as he opened his mouth trying his hardest to be rude and cruel to the boy beside him, but it was like something had caught his tongue before he could even move it.

When he started coughing in a struggle with his subconscious, Susumu, oh ever so helpful Susumu, gasped in shock and passed him an open water bottle which Tsukasa looked doubtfully at – the kids lips had been on it! "Please! Please drink!" Despite his hesitance, the fact that it was being shoved in his face and that the younger Makino was not focused on the road whatsoever, had Tsukasa indirectly kissing the younger Makino and he felt his nose twitch distastefully. "Are you okay? Are you sick?"

"I'm fine!" He spoke with a little more force than he'd intended and saw Susumu back away for the first time since they'd met. The rest of the 2 hour ride to Nago Bay passed rather uneventfully as Susumu turned to look at him more carefully and Tsukasa checked his 'email' on his phone.

When they finally turned into the resort, Tsukasa had to say he was pleasantly surprised by how intimate it looked. Like a massive sprawling villa with just- pools and pools of tourists all over the front of the scene. There was a group off to the side playing Tennis at the courts, a group in the back corner he could see swimming and lounging by the pool, with loads of tourists tanning, and then in the far left he could see the beach volleyball courts.

His jaw must have dropped as he kept his eyes fixed on the courts because Susumu beside him snickered a little as they turned into the massive U-curve of the front of the hotel and immediately in a manner similar to what he saw at his mother's own hotels, a bell boy rushed forward- immediately opening his door.

What he didn't expect was the massive clap on his back and the high-five. "Welcome to the Makino Resorts guy! Get on upstairs get changed! We've been waiting for you at the surf shack!"

"Excuse me?! I'm here to meet Makino-san!" He hastily responded. He did not want to surf. He was here to do business, important business! None of that involved wearing a wetsuit and pretending to be a dolphin.

His pleas went unheard as he was thrown into a change room with a dreaded wet suit, and then an extremely buff looking American grasped at him and pulled him out towards the beach.

The rest of his afternoon was spent wiping out on the beach,and swallowing way too much salt water for his taste. Once surfing was over, he was made to pedal like a mad man on a cycling track – and every time he pleaded for relief and to continue his business meeting - the Makino unofficial Olympic training team pushed him back in to some extremely physical activity.

He was wondering if this was less a resort and more some sort of fat camp where they forced you to exercise till you fainted.

Thankfully at around 6PM, he found relief as he was allowed to shower in his room which he had to admit was not shabby for the type of place he thought he was coming to. It was small, and intimate with a beautiful view of the bay. When he stepped out ruffling his wet curls with a plush white towel he realized he had nothing to wear that befitted the type of occasion this had turned into.

He looked at his suitcase and bit his lip, he didn't feel like a suit would be the right choice, and so he settled for dress pants and a plain white shirt he could leave open with a white undershirt underneath.

It was the most casual thing he could muster with what he had but he could already imagine feeling out of place in the 'cafeteria'.

He had never in his life eaten at a cafeteria.

He sure as hell didn't want to start now but it looked like if he wanted to either meet Tsukushi or Makino Haruo he would have go to through whatever Susumu had planned for him.

Damn that Susumu, _director of the fun times_ his ass.

A knock at his door broke him out of his thoughts as he gulped and mussed up his hair before answering the door. He was pleasantly shocked and surprised to find a familiar face grinning back at him.

In Okinawa, Makino Tsukushi was sun-kissed and in a brilliant red crocheted dress that barely hung on her shoulders by two thin straps. Tsukushi leaned a bit forward and he found himself suddenly thirsty as he observed just how deep the neckline of her seemingly modest dress went down...and how far down her tan followed. "Had fun out on the beach today?" She teased him and he felt his eyes fly back up to her face as he rolled them backwards.

"You- you owe me a lot of answers." Tsukasa felt his heart skip a beat as he saw her smile get even wider. She covered her mouth in decency to hide how she was laughing at him.

His heart had apparently decided to develop an arrhythmia. It couldn't even beat in a coherent rhythm anymore. _She doesn't look that good come on_ , he tried to tell himself in vain."This was all my dad's idea…he said he should give you a flavour of the way we do things if you were going to try to shut us down."

She spun on her heel and started walking away from him and Tsukasa couldn't help himself from reaching out and grabbing her arm. A bolt of electricity jumped through him as he remembered they were here in front of his bedroom door and he could just easily pull her in and try to restart what had almost gone down in his car- Rui wasn't here either to distract her- he'd have Makino Tsukushi all to himself. "Where are you going?" He hoped his voice didn't convey any weakness but found it hard to believe.

"To dinner…we're eating with my family." She moved backwards from him and he nodded nervously shutting his door.

He was eating with her family. God, this was weird. The last time he'd eaten with a strange girl's parents he'd ended up engaged to her.

He scoffed looking at Makino Tsukushi. Okay, he was fairly certain that wasn't going to happen here. Still he found his eyes glued to her as she kept her own gaze fixed on the floor. "How was beach volleyball?" He asked as he saw her rub her arm where he'd grabbed her and smirked.

"Fun!"

"I have to say, I'm a little offended." He started as they made their walk down the sole, large staircase in the villa. "I expected you at the airport and then Susumu tells me you'd rather not see me if you could." He almost burst out laughing when he saw her face turn the shade of her dress.

"That little piece of-"

"Nee-chan!"As if on cue, Susumu yelled out from the bottom of the stairs. Makino turned from the stairs to look at him and the brother's eyes grew large in fear. "Whatever I did! I'm so sorry!"

"You dumb little piece of-" She raced forward and grabbed him by his neck crushing his temples into her knuckles. "You little knuckle head. What the hell are you saying? I was avoiding seeing him?"

"That is what you said! At least I didn't say the rest of it!" He shot back, squealing and screaming his way out of her hold fast.

"What's the rest of it?" Tsukasa volunteered as he saw Susumu yelp as Makino cracked her knuckles.

"You come here! You idiot! I can't trust you with anything you're totally-" As she ran after him Tsukasa couldn't help but laugh and feel a bubble of jealousy break through his chest. He had brothers, but not like that- the F4 were closer to him than any family but the relaxed casual relationship Makino had with Susumu? That was something he had never, nor would ever know.

"They're a little wild neh, gomen nasaii." He heard a voice come up from behind him as almost immediately, he could tell the gracious woman in her mild mannered skirt and buttoned down top was Makino's mother. They had the same eyes, but where Makino's reflected anger, this woman's gaze only reflected kindness and generosity. "Welcome Domyouji-san, Haruo-san is waiting for us at the barbeque." She pushed him towards a private balcony from the cafeteria.

Finally, he was starting to feel like a V.I.P. "What about Makino-san and Susumu?" He questioned doubtfully looking back to where the brother and sister were still arguing in a manner so lively it seemed to liven up the resort.

"They'll join us when they're tired of each other." She laughed brightly and Tsukasa couldn't help but feel himself relax automatically in her presence. Was this what it was like to have a kind caring woman as a mother?

Rui was right, Tsukushi's family wasn't totally fucked up.

"WHOPAH! CATCH DOMYOUJI-SAN!" He had to think very fast as a squid came flying at his face.

Unluckily for him, the squid landed straight on his face as he waved his hands about. He felt it slowly slide off his nose, his eyes blinking slowly as Tsukushi burst out laughing pointing at him. "Oh my god, that was priceless! Dad! Do it again!" She clapped her hands together excitedly like she'd just seen a seal perform at Marineland. He turned to look at her and narrowed his eyes carefully.

She'd pay for that later.

Oh who was he kidding?

So far, he was at her beck and call- not the other way around. He couldn't bring himself to hate the situation though, another anomaly considering how he normally treated women.

Then again the women he met expected no better treatment, Tsukushi was so strong and confident she expected every one around her to kiss the ground she walked on.

He often made fun of how she learned nothing in law school, but now he couldn't help but think that was the reason she was so confident- and he wondered how many cases she'd won in her career as she flashed him her winning grin through bites of squid on a stick. "Tsukushi!" Haruo, her father chastised her as she kept bubbling up in giggles pretending to smack her own face with her hands. "That's enough!" He said that but the Makino father was laughing himself.

"Next time I'll be more prepared." Tsukasa grinned widely as he leaned forward to the barbeque smelling the meat. He was livid inside but he wouldn't show it. He couldn't show it. He was better than showing his anger. "Thank you for inviting me to dine with your family."

"No problem Domyouji-san! It was unfortunate your mother couldn't join us but we hope you'll enjoy our small lovely resort nevertheless." He bowed his head gratefully and a little taken aback that the man was so humble Tsukasa bowed back, something he almost never did. "You must be hot in those though! Susumu! Get the guy some shorts! And please have a seat! Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

Susumu yelled a sound that sounded like a 'Yeah' and rushed off as he was left between Tsukushi and her mother, both of whom were looking at him closely. "Is there something on my face?"

"No no," Her mother expressed kindly. "You took care of the squid well, you can't even see the Teriyaki sauce anymore."

"She means its all over your chin." Tsukushi supplied blankly as he scrambled to grab the napkin on the table and rubbed his face down grumbling despite himself. "Dad does that to me all the time so don't feel too bad."

"I'll try my best." He supplied sarcastically as he saw Tsukushi smirk proudly. "And what are you smiling at?"

"Nothing, just happy I got to see the great Domyouji-finisher with a squid on his face."

"And if you tell anyone, I'll personally make sure to kill you in your sleep." He grinned back brightly.

Tsukushi snorted. "I'd like to see you try, you make so much noise I'd wake up."

"I do not make noise!"

The rest of the night passed rather pleasantly in a banter that was nice, food that tasted divine and a wonderful sense of openness and family Tsukasa had to admit he'd never felt in his life before. Even with Shigeru's family.

He found himself agreeing with Haruo-san, teasing Susumu, thanking Chieko-san and-

Unable to look away from how brightly Tsukushi shined in the presence of her family.

In Tokyo she came off bitter, judgmental, angry, and, lest he say it, sexy beyond belief. Here, she looked positively beautiful in a way he'd never seen from her. Like her skin shone with happiness and her teeth sparkled brilliantly against her olive skin, her skin blushed red by her breathless laughs as she watched Susumu make the table break out into fits of laughter when he described his face when he hugged him.

He could understand why she'd want to protect something like this so fiercely as she had. He could understand the way her family made her feel. He could see where she was coming from now.

When the night started to wind down, Tsukasa was just about getting ready to leave the family when Haruo-san smiled at him kindly and tapped him on the shoulder. "Would you join me for a walk on the beach?"

"Sure Haruo-san." He grinned back uncharacteristically happy after being fed and fattened by the Makino family. That was probably exactly what they wanted, for him to let his guard down, but even though he knew exactly what their play was he couldn't bring himself to care.

They walked in silence for some time until mid-way through an empty stretch he heard Haruo-san take a deep breath. "I will be honest with you right now Domyouji-san. I believe a man should always be as honest as possible to his family and his adversaries."

 _A fool's belief_ but again Tsukasa kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to deter the Makino patriarch. "You can be as open as you wish Makino-san,"

"We're three months away from shutting down…the longer this deal with your family wears on the harder it gets for us to operate." He looked pained and Tsukasa's normally ice cold heart twinged in pity for the man for a second. If only Tsukushi and her family had stayed off his mother's radar just long enough to really gain a strong enough foothold in the market.

Oh who was he kidding? His mother would have found them and shut them down sooner or later. "I understand the situation you are in, which is why I continue to urge Makino-san to come to terms with our agreement."

"Yes, we give up directional right to our hotel. She's mentioned this many times to me- and if I wasn't so invested in the success of this idea I would agree."

Tsukasa gulped as he shuffled from foot to foot. "That is not my choice to make sir,"

"Yes, Tsukushi has explained to me. Your mother is my main adversary." His words sounded like something that should have alarmed Tsukasa but his tone was amused. "Regardless, I wanted you to see and experience what we have dubbed the Makino experience. So you can understand what a pity it might be to watch this business die down."

"We'll compensate you." Even as he offered it, Tsukasa felt cheap when he saw the Makino patriarch put a hand on his shoulder.

"Money is interesting isn't it? People will do anything for it." Makino Haruo nodded his head but not really to Tsukasa, more to himself. "A long time ago I was like that, I was a gambler- I made Tsukushi work hard to get where she is. Very hard. I made my wife cry, I made Susumu the fool he is today but that's why Domyouji-san this isn't about money for our family. We're protecting more than that here. We're protecting our happiness and our future. Please don't take that away from us. Thank you for your money but it's not your money we want. As a man who was in love with money for a very long time it took me a long time to learn that lesson."

"What lesson?"

"Not everything is about money, Domyouji-san." Haruo-san bowed his head again and Tsukasa felt himself dumbly nod his head back. What could he say to that?

To him, to his mother, to everyone he knew and everyone they knew and everyone they knew, with the exception of Shizuka, money was everything. Money was what worked in their world. Money was brought them everything they wanted. "And what are you two talking about?" Tsukushi's voice crept up on them sneakily as both men turned around to see the Makino daughter barefoot in the sand. As his eyes climbed up her body, Tsukasa gulped, imagining how smooth her legs must feel against his hands as he watched her race towards her father and hug him. "Dad, I told you to leave him to me! I can take care of this."

Haruo-san winked at him and then bowed deeply shocking his daughter who ducked down after him out of sheer curiousity. Then he suddenly jumped up and clutched his wrists. "Ah right, Domyouji-san, please marry my daughter!"

Tsukasa felt his eyes widen as he backed away nervously laughing but he needn't have said anything because Tsukushi's father burst out laughing at his daughter's incredibly infuriated expression. "NOT LIKE THAT PAPA! GOD-"

"I'll leave you kids to discuss your business. I wasn't made for these sorts of discussions, but I do sincerely hope you consider my proposition Domyouji-san…beyond just Tsukushi's marriage." As Haruo-san walked away and Tsukasa was left looking at an increasingly red Tsukushi, he felt his heart quicken.

"Sorry about that." She mumbled. "I told you they're mental! Just not in the way you think." She huffed loudly grinning at him. "Let's get you back to your room? You're flying out two days from now right?"

"Yeah." He managed to mutter out as he saw her turn to look at him strangely. "Do you think your dad could do it?"

"Run this place?" She questioned back and saw him nod. "Of course I can, he's been doing it for the past three years without anyone's help, least of all your mothers." He felt a bitter smile rise on his face as he turned to look at her.

"You hate her don't you?"

Makino scoffed. Should she pretend? She didn't think she needed to. "Of course I do. She's underhanded, sneaky and the worst sort of CEO. Don't you hate her?"

"Yeah. I do. She's done a lot of messed up shit. But I don't think I hate her for what you hate her for. I think she does the right thing when it comes to business most of the time. It's personal lives she usually fucks up." Tsukasa knew he shouldn't be this open with Makino Tsukushi. He really shouldn't but something about how kind her family had been to him the past few hours had cracked open a wedge in his heart that he was finding fairly difficult to close.

"No, destroying businesses like my family's is probably what she does for breakfast with her excellent lawyer of a son." She snickered and he laughed beside her, kicking sand towards her feet. "Hey!" Tsukushi yelped kicking sand back at him and he smiled leaning down to the ground balling his hand up in a fist of the loose grains of earth. "Yah! You better- be careful- that's no joke okay! It isn't like snow!" She leaned down preparing herself as they sank into the ground together grinning at each other threateningly.

"Okay fine, I'll stop. I don't want to hurt you." He teased her and saw her jaw drop as she bit her lip and threw sand in his face. He yelped loudly as he didn't close his eyes in time and the sand entered his eyeball. "Damn Tsukushi! You got sand in my eyes!" If they were in high school that would have totally gotten her a red card.

He heard her hiss but couldn't see her as his eyes filled with water and she became a blurry watery blob of vision. "Oh crap! Sorry." He felt her hands come over his face and her legs stretch out on either side of him as she climbed on top of him to keep his eyelids open while she blowed air in to displace the sand grains. "I was aiming for your mouth! I thought it'd be funny to see you spit sand." She cackled at the imaginary sight as he sarcastically laughed back.

"Very funny." He remarked dryly feeling his body tense as his vision started to clear and he saw Tsukushi's lips forming perfect 'O's as her eyes closed and she leaned closer to him, blowing hard into his eyes.

"Better?" She mumbled continuing to blow at his eyes, barely aware that he was looking straight at her, revelling in the sight of the Makino princess on her knees bent in front of him, exactly where and how he wanted her to be.

So he pushed his face forward and softly placed his lips on hers. It was more an automatic reaction than a desire on his part at this point, after weeks and weeks of fantasies like this one entering his mind, this opportunity seemed too good to pass up.

Tsukushi's eyes flew open as she blinked wildly feeling the Domyouji prodigy move his plump, enveloping lips softly against hers, his tongue grazed her lower lip pleading with her to go with the flow and just kiss him back. The waves behind them crashed in soft sounds and she was entirely sure they carried the sound of her life going to absolute shit as she felt herself just for a second part her lips open and move her mouth to kiss him back.

It wasn't longer than a millisecond but it was long enough for Tsukushi to realize what had happened and then she had her hands on his shoulders as she pushed him off her.

"Much better now."

"What?" She asked dumbly.

"You asked...if I was better. That was exactly what I needed...so I'm much...much better." Why did everything he say sound like it was dripping with sexual innuendo. Tsukasa was leaning back lazily on his elbows smirking up at her, Tsukushi sat basically on top of him. Her eyes blinking furiously as she looked between him and herself and felt her heart speed up faster.

She scrambled backwards faster than you could say 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'. "Uh…I have…I should-"

"Keep kissing me." She was going to say leave. Tsukasa obviously had other things on his mind as he leaned forward and pulled her back by her wrist, all too happy to feel how fast her heart was beating under his fingertips.

"Why?" She tilted her head sideways, blinking furiously as she imagined rolling around the sand with Tsukasa Domyouji. As appealing as the option sounded – she couldn't bring herself to make the first move so she moved off him again shaking her head.

"Oh come on…that was fun! And your dad all but gave us permission."

Her eyebrows flew up so high she was sure she looked like an anime character. "Eat shit Domyouij-san." She grinned brightly and stalked off the beach trying her best to not break out in a run.

Great…now not only did Tsukasa Domyouji have great leverage over their hotel chain, he also now had great leverage against her sanity.

Little did she know, the Domyouji prince was just as scared as she was that he'd let too much of his weakness for her show.


	9. Chapter 8

Yuki stepped gingerly out of the elevator as she looked around the brown brick walls around her and gulped a little. To be honest when Akira had asked her to come to his house she had immediately retaliated that she wasn't that type of hostess and she really wasn't…but he'd insisted this was professional only.

Of course she'd said no, or at least well she'd tried to but the mature man's marble eyes had broken her down and she had only her weak mind to blame. Now as she stood, her heart hammering away at a million miles per minute she could only wish she'd been stronger then. She stood in front of the three doors in front of her wondering which one she should knock…he hadn't told her which one was his apartment.

It appeared she needn't have bothered because a man came out of the door on the far right, isolated from the rest in a welding mask. Muscles bulging from his tight black shirt, and only the silver chain hanging of his neck with an equally silver dog tag told her that it was Akira behind the mask.

If anything her heart just beat faster as she saw his gloved hands shift his mask up his head so his face was visible. "Ah Yuki-chan! You're here! Thank you, I wasn't expecting you to be so-" He reached in his pants for his phone and she saw him chuckle. "You're perfectly on time."

"Well…you are a customer, I had to make a good impression." She mumbled a little bit, mostly because she was entirely too uncomfortable with the privacy of this moment. Yuki was pretty boisterous in front of her friends, and equally lively in front of people who paid for that part of her company but right now Akira and she were meeting unofficially, as two acquaintances nothing more. So she felt a little bit displaced in how she was supposed to behave with him and so her voice lost some of its usual tonality and found itself nervously mumbling in front of the demi-god.

"I really have to give up hanging out with my loser friends, I'm sorry I'm not really ready. I really wanted to shower too…" He wiped the sweat off his brow but Yuki just found herself tilting her head appreciatively.

"You look fine to me." And despite her careful manner, she was a little surprised that comment had slipped out of her mouth as easily as it had and Akira simply smiled kindly at her. She imagined in any other situation, Hanazawa Rui would be sleeping, Domyouji Tsukasa would start shouting proudly that he looked better than fine and Nishikado Soujiro…well…she didn't even want to think what he'd do at a statement like that.

Akira simply took it in his stride and bowed kindly towards her as he walked back towards the door and opened it up. "Let's go inside the studio, I'll put my equipment away and then we'll go to the main floor of the loft space."

Of course Mimasaka Akira would be almost painfully rich. Meanwhile Tsukushi and she lived in little bigger than a bedroom and a gas stove that was immediately put to shame but the size of his studio.

It was just a large open space, nothing fancy. Tools, masks, paint, and oddly curtain rods seemed to be haphazardly organized over the floor. "You'll have to mind the mess…I'm a bit of a pack rat and I don't really let people into this area of the house so it's never clean."

"I rather enjoy seeing it. I guess there's a mess even behind your carefully put together self." He chuckled at that and Yuki felt herself flush in worry that she'd embarrassed herself but Akira simply shrugged it off as easily as he shrugged off the gloves on his hands.

"I won't leave you in suspense for too long then…we're all messes. I think in every way you could agree there's a part of ourselves that we just refuse to clean up." He walked towards a fridge that she hadn't noticed and pulled out a bottle of water, throwing it at her but Yuki was caught off guard as she scrambled basically juggling the water bottle before she finally caught it.

When she turned around triumphantly, Akira was smirking at her under strands of his hair that had fallen loose from his ponytail. She only scowled as she opened it up. "I'm sorry not all of us are athletically inclined."

"Any time you want to play catch, I'm available Yuki-chan." He winked at her which did nothing to help calm down the existing flush on her cheeks so she decided to turn away from him and walk towards the large open French windows. How nice to be so rich and infamous.

"So you're a mess."

"And so are you." He corrected before he was left with entirely all of the blame and Yuki raised an eyebrow. "I think that it's important to have a corner of your world be like that don't you?"

"Sure…I think having everything under control could put an unreasonable amount of pressure on a person where they fall under risk of not being honest with themselves and their subconscious desires." His smile grew wider and she had to keep her eyes fixed back on the window as the sun and shadows danced around his bobbing adam's apple as he drank another gulp of water.

"Do you think that corner of our lives can get too big?"

"Depends on the client, their own thresholds- but sure. That part of ourselves we choose to keep that way could in theory become too much for us to handle. Take over parts of our lives that we've chosen to keep separate…" She felt her eyebrows as Mimasaka Akira scooted closer to her and she backed up against the wall to ensure there was a safe amount of distance between them. "What is this concerning?"

"Soujiro."

"Soujiro?" She mimicked forgetting the honorifics for a second and then caught her tongue wincing. "What does this have to do with him?"

"He's always been a fuckhead." Akira grinned brightly as if he was remembering fond times Yuki would rather not think of. "Always, he's never bothered me with it- I've encouraged it. I've revelled in having a partner in crime who could keep up with me." Yuki almost rolled her eyes but she resisted for Akira's sake he looked like he was genuinely concerned and how would that help any precarious situation she was in with the F4? "But it's getting really stupid now. He's letting it become everything he is and I can't have that. He's underperformed as the Sales Executive of his company, he doesn't do anything else he enjoys anymore, he's become angry towards all of us and uses us for our money and frankly I'm done with that shit. He needs to be slapped around and woken up. If it were up to me, I'd have beat the shit out of him three days ago when he came to me telling me that the reason I stood in front of him proud as I am is because his father saved my ass from entering jail six years ago."

"Well did he?"

"Sure he did…that doesn't mean he can go around throwing that in my face."

"Doesn't it? Didn't you give him that power over you?"

"This is about Soujiro-"

"But is it?" She questioned back just as strongly and saw a flare of anger lick his eyes and decided to back down. "You just want him back to the way he was for you…but what's good for him?"

"Don't tell me what's good for him Yuki. I've taken care of the man since I was a child myself. I know whats good for my friend. And that's where you come in. Cloyingly sweet as you are…like a cake with just a bit too much icing. You're the one thing that's gotten under his skin."

"I am?" Yuki was surprised. "Look…I'm not sure what you want me to do here but I'm not dating your friend."

"Date?" Now Akira looked confused. "Who said anything about dating anyone?"

God, could this be any more embarrassing? "Then- what do you mean- I'm good for him?"

"Your psychobabble!"

"I really appreciate it being called that by the way." This time she openly glared at him as he continued to smile back at her and now she could only find it irritating. "In case you haven't forgotten, I'm a student. I'm not supposed to be working with people. I don't have any licensing and I'm not qualified to psycho-analyze any person let alone your friend."

"Even better. He definitely wouldn't talk to a psychologist nor would I want him to…Tsukasa was enough to loose. I just want him to move past- well whatever's keeping him this angry. This vengeful." Akira crushed the plastic from the water bottle under his hands. "Look, you don't have to say yes…but you'll be paid handsomely, I'll personally make sure you're safe the whole time and you'll help my friend deal with some issues he'd never acknowledge out loud. It's a win-win."

"And you think money is everything to me?"

"Isn't it?" She wanted to say he was wrong but the words did get stuck in her throat. It was, and it would help a long way in making sure she was debt free after graduation, not to mention she'd still have to work for essentially free as a volunteer therapist at first, and then work her way to more profitable clients, and it would take her even longer to become a court designated therapist like she wanted – "If you say no that's fine, I'll just find some other doe-eyed girl who won't take his-"

"I'll do it."

"Excellent." He bowed his head towards her and walked towards the opposing door leaving her by the door. As she saw him walk away, a part of her heart deflated as he turned to look at her. "Don't just stand there- my cheque book is in my apartment."

"Why couldn't we talk about this in the hostess bar? Somewhere else? Anywhere but here really?" She wasn't shocked to see him walk back towards her and slowly he ducked his head down so that they were exactly at level.

"Because then you're not on my turf…and Yuki-chan that's the only way my family has ever made deals. It was the reason I could go to the best schools in the country, befriend the richest men in the country and have the company of a beautiful woman like you." Akira was right in front of her now and with just three more steps he'd be unbearably close. These three steps away though he was perfectly fine and so Yuki felt relief course through her body. "The real question is…what were you expecting we'd do today?" Again the innocence of his tone made an otherwise awkward question subtle and soft.

She decided this time she wouldn't answer and just shrugged and moved off towards the house. "Don't just stand there…the chequebook is in your apartment."

He laughed and nodded his hand waving towards the door in a gentlemanly dismissive manner. "After you, my lady."

Tsukushi glared up at Tsukasa who was sparkling brilliantly under the sun as he jumped off the sand in a move that looked to be defying gravity. Then he smacked the ball down on her head…again…after she'd managed to head butt it off. "Oh I'm sorry did I hurt you?" He stuck his tongue out as he celebrated another point and yelled at Susumu who was stuck doing the score keepers job. "POINT SUSUMU! Yeah…I could get used to this."

Tsukushi wanted to tell him he was already too used to winning. Something had to bring him down. "Do you know in Volleyball that doesn't count?"

"I thought volleyball was the sport where you could use any part of your body." He waggled his eyebrows mentioning when she'd used her chest and he'd tried to call foul.

She rolled her eyes. If yesterday hadn't happened right on her freaking lips she would have laughed out loudly if someone told her that Tsukasa Domyouji was interested in kissing her. Whatever illusions he'd presented in front of her last night in his loose shirt and sand soaked fingers had definitely disappeared this morning.

If she had to guess, she would say this was his retaliation for her rejecting to kiss him and then asking him to eat shit…that didn't mean she deserved to be hit in the head twice. "How would you feel if I hit your head?"

When he laughed, he sounded so demonic it made her insides turn over. "I'd like to see you try shorty." He also seemed to have forgotten any sense of decorum. Like he'd taken a vacation from being himself, or maybe this was how he always was. Regardless it was really helping her get her feelings for him in perspective. They were decidedly unfavourable she could now tell you which was better than yesterday.

She chose now to grit her teeth together and smile to ignore his height comment. "So what are your thoughts on an extended severance package?"

"Will it get your dad to stop guilt tripping me?" He tossed the ball up in the air and slammed it with his closed fist so it soared over the net. Tsukushi ran and jumped up to try to smack it back down, thankfully she was successful and it soared back over the net landing right off Tsukasa's fingertips.

The severity of the pout on his face made her burst in giggles. It was like she was looking at a three year old child. "SUSUMU! A POINT PLEASE! We seemed to have finally cracked your highness' code."

"I'd say no, to be honest at this point everything should be a no. It's a pretty fair deal."

"You mean to shut down someone's life's work. Yeah sure, not to mention emotional damage-"

Tsukasa groaned loudly interrupting her spiel before she could finish the full list of items that she could use against him in court, even though this merger would never go there. "God you're talking like a lawyer now, don't you ever take a break?"

"From you?"

"Should we go there in front of Susumu?" He snickered as her saw face frantically turn to look at Makino Susumu who was obliviously leaning against his palm, fanning himself, drowning in the summer heat and definitely not changing any of the scores.

"Shut up." She hissed and he faked an injury against his heart as he whirled through the sand. "Oh- just- grow up." She huffed and the angrier she got the lighter Tsukasa felt on his feet when he raced for the ball.

"God I love pissing you off." He admitted off handedly as he saw her blink quickly and blush. Why that of all things would make her blush he wasn't sure. He could have said a whole bunch of things he was starting to love about Makino Tsukushi, her ass for one-

"Just—god." She gave up, grabbing the ball from the air and pushing it down in the sand. "That's it, game over."

"What?" Words could not express the disappointment he felt. "Why?"

"Because I- I hate this." She walked off the beach so quickly. Susumu had begun dozing off so he didn't see his sister's anger. Tsukasa however, bounded off quickly catching up to her with his long legs.

"You hate-"

"You. I hate you." Even as she said it she knew she didn't really mean it because Tsukasa's eyes had hardened suddenly in a manner unpredictable to her…but now that she'd said it she felt the need to explain herself. "You think I'm just a big joke. You think you can fuck around with me and then what? Wipe yourself of me and family's legal issues? You have a real fucking messed up mind if you think I'd let you do that."

They stood in the summer sun, the heat doing nothing to cool off both their hot heads. "Get over yourself." He finally relented shaking his head. "What do you want me to do? Tell me."

"I hate this…so don't talk about it anymore. The idea makes no sense."

"To you." He corrected. "It makes no sense to you, it makes perfect sense to me."

"As a short-term thing?"

"Of course….but you're not that type are you?" She glanced dangerously at him so he pulled on his ears and stuck his tongue out in a manner so childishly apologetic, Tsukushi felt her anger melt just the slightest. "Would you prefer we merged in a more official way like our companies?" He just had to go say that. This was not the time for jokes. Little did she know, Domyouji was only half-joking the other part of his brain was entirely serious as he tried to wrap his head around how he'd possibly be allowed to keep the Makino princess around for longer than intended, even by himself. If that was what she wanted? Why not? That was the one thing he could give her without his mother's permission.

"You never stop. You will always be the man who wants something new. Right now its me. Later it'll be something else and for another thing - get your facts straight. You are acquiring us. And I can't let you just acquire me like another trophy in your set. Oh the bitch lawyer who was actually doing a good job at defending her family, broke her well didn't I?"

"Is there something to break?"

"You jackass."

"You've got to stop this swearing before you leave thing!" He didn't get to defend himself much further because just like last night the little Makino princess ran away.

But more and more he hated how much he wanted to pull her back because it was starting to become this unignorable tug against his chest…she was making him feel guiltier than her father had. A power it appeared only the Makino family had had so far in his longstanding career of ruining small businesses like hers.


	10. Chapter 9

"I'm sorry…what did you say to me?" It was a week after he'd returned from his vacation at the Makino resort and Domyouji Tsukasa winced as he heard his mother's response to his rather tentative question.

"It's not a horrible idea, we could keep it going-" Tsukasa proposed faltering as he saw his mother shudder like he'd asked her to drink cow's piss because it was good for her health.

"I don't pay you to think Tsukasa, I don't even expect you to do much because you've proven yourself even more useless than your sister." She laughed. "So please don't make a fool of yourself and try to think."

The color rising up her son's neck was a steam engine read and Kaede Domyouji waited patiently. She was doing this less because she actually thought his idea to keep Makino Resorts and Spas going was a bad idea and more because she needed him to learn his place again. He'd been getting closer and closer to the case, considering he'd spent almost a month on it now- far longer than she'd expected.

The only complication in their formula was the opposing side and so to crush Makino Tsukushi, it seemed Kaede would have to crush Tsukasa a little first. She would act as his muse to bring out the vengeful, horrible man that she knew her beloved son could be and should be when required.

"You know I'm not fucking wrong-"

"No you're not, and if you were bringing this up under any other context I would have even bothered to spare thought to the idea costly as it may be. But you are so pathetic right now because we both know this isn't your idea." She laughed and watched him bare his teeth unconsciously, like some salivating pitbull that didn't know what to do with all of his pent up frustration. "Come on, just get this over with Tsukasa."

"Why are you such a bitch?" She raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

"Maybe I wouldn't be…if you weren't such a disappointment." Inside him, there was still a little angry boy who loved to be coddled and at least from her Tsukasa had never received anything because Kaede hadn't been that sort of mother and didn't think she ever could be. Even if she tried now it would be fake, and far too late.

She'd expected him to blow up, cry, throw something at her face but it looked like the therapy he'd gone to after he'd literally combusted in front of the woman he'd loved had served him well. He laughed at her and shook his head walking away. "You never change…and one day you're going to mess up. One day I'll make sure you're not around anymore."

"And live happily ever after? If only life was as simple as your little fairytale Tsukasa…" Her phone rang and her secretary called out for the end of the meeting so Tsukasa got up before she had a chance to ask him to walk out.

"I'll be happy to put an end to this if you'd like but you're making the wrong choice…like you always do."

"Yes and all these wrong choices have bought your luxury condos, cars and that American express Black card that I've never heard of you paying for-" She grinned brightly and waved him away. "Next time you come if you're not done with that girl yet I'll make sure to be even more demanding!"

"I'll do what you asked me to don't worry. I'm meeting her tonight and I'll kill it. She'll come out of there signing what I want her to but it'll be fair. And I'll make the decision on what's fair because they aren't like the others mother – they can come back at us harder than we would hit them." He didn't mean that really. Tsukushi wasn't like the others but that was because despite every better thought in his mind he wanted to give her what she wanted not because she rightfully could and should ruin him. He'd never been afraid of that challenge. In fact the prospect of it had always excited him. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't have to hurt you Tsukasa…I have other tools at my disposal…slowly drown out the failing Nishikado corporation and make them the next target of my acquisition team- or lets see Hanazawa-san's company might be a bit expensive so I'll leave him alone- BUT I did hear something ridiculous about the Mimasaka tribe running a brothel outside of the city that makes 10% of their annual family income! Can you believe that?! It would be a real pity if it was shut down- and then there's Okawahara-san…already as troubled as she is- I could help bring you two back together. Wouldn't you love that?"

The first lick of flame finally touched his eyes and Kaede smiled pridefully. He was always irrational when it came to that girl. He was ready. "Fuck off."

"Please, if you would-" He left the room and Kaede smirked. "Send in the next appointment Minori."

Later that night, Tsukushi rubbed her hair as she glanced at herself in the mirror of the Domyouji Corporate washroom at 9 at night.

Now looking back on their time together, she felt almost apologetic towards Tsukasa because she had really ruined his vacation. The rest of his time had been spent with Susumu, and the remainder with her father as she stayed out of his view. She even managed to avoid dropping him off at the airport. A feat she considered very successful considering her mother had spent the better part of 6 hours nagging her about dropping the young Domyouji heir off.

She leaned over the sink and ran just one swipe of the red lipstick on her lips and then looked up, judged herself and immediately reached for a tissue and wet it. Once she was done wiping her lips down her entire mouth was left looking red and a little bruised and swollen. "Fuck." She muttered rubbing her head.

What the hell was she doing?

 _Trying to be prepared if he makes a move duh!_ Her eyes flew open nervously as she gulped and leaned against the cool marble wall.

She was already 20 minutes late for meeting him. Knowing Domyouji Tsukasa he was probably pacing the room ready to bite her head off after their conversation on the beach - not ready bite her lips off.

 _Still he could…you know…and you did wear your nice silk underwear it would be such a shame to take it off just to put it in the laundry basket…_

Oh god her brain, couldn't it just shut up ? It was too foolish to be thinking these things behind enemy lines. Especially when she'd clearly told both him and herself that she hated him! Hated him! Remember hate! Those feelings that aren't supposed to be making her feel like she was melted butter drowning in a frying pan.

She glanced around herself in the empty room almost afraid someone was reading her thoughts. The truth was she was attracted to him, she was really really attracted to him.

She had to get out of this washroom, the more she spent time with her own thoughts the worse they got. So she put her best brave face on and pretended she wasn't tempted to duck behind the door and stand him up.

When she walked into the room she saw him sitting at the boardroom table, he didn't bother looking up at her either. "Sorry I'm late," She verbalized quickly. He didn't say a word back but he did glance up at her and she saw a tinge of an emotion she couldn't quite place. Either ways, something in her gut told her, it didn't look good for her.

She felt her eyelids flutter nervously as she took the seat across him, aware now more than ever of the intensity of the gaze on her figure. "Were you able to talk with your mother?"

"Yes." He replied tersely.

Regardless, whatever she'd thought of when she'd ran that red lipstick across her mouth was not going to be a reality today. She might as well play hard ass. She was acting like a fucking wimp. Man up, Tsukushi! You're not here to mess around with the Domyouji heir.

"And?" She raised an eyebrow leaning back in her chair. "If you give me that concession, and the adjustment on the employee severance pay-"

"You're joking." He looked up at her, his face quite clearly conveying how pissed off he was that she'd asked for that. "You never mentioned an increase to the severance package."

"Well of course, I did…on the beach remember? This was right before you hit me on the head and paraded around like it was the first thing you ever won in your life? Is that an issue for you?"

"You have no fucking clue do you? You've made me like your agent or something. I'm not even-" He paused rubbing his eyes. Then he looked at her, really looked at her, gulped. "For two seconds, I'm going to cut the bullshit with you now. This is the last fucking leg of our discussion. I don't want to see you again after this, today you are signing these papers. This is it. We are fucking done. You think you hate me? Well guess what. The feeling is entirely mutual you infuriate me, you make me very very angry and that isn't good for me." He'd chosen his words so carefully it sounded like they came out of a politically correct handbook. "I have worked very hard to get where I am today and you- you're undermining me. I'm letting you! I'm letting you do this which is even worse! It's all because you act like this! Confident, and made of steel! You act like- you own the world and something about that makes me respect you because of your sheer determination! But guess what? I don't let people piss me off Tsukushi!" She was all too aware of the way her heart soared in her chest. "And that-"

Before she knew what had happened she'd said the unthinkable. "I'm sorry." She'd meant it she really meant it, that was the worst part. She had wanted to say sorry for the beach and she wanted to say sorry now that she'd upset him. "I'm sorry you think I'm doing this to you in a personal lens but the truth is from a professional perspective, I'm just trying to get these people what they deserve-"

"What they deserve?" He hollered, laughing. "I say no. They deserve nothing. The weak get devoured, it's the law of the jungle and you're weak, Tsukushi. I should have swallowed you and your whole family up now and left you for your own struggles. Instead I'm here bargaining with a competitor who already lost the match long before the match even started and I'm letting her boss me around like I'm a piece of garbage."

He needed to stop saying her first name like he was. It was muddling her mind. Something about it sounded too pleasant from his mouth. "You don't though- you're a-" She felt her tongue grow heavy in her mouth as the words came out after careful consideration. "You're not like her. You're not like your mother. You're a good person. You don't really believe that."

In a fairy tale, this was the part where his heart of gold would burst through his chest and illuminate the room.

In reality, this was the part where the source of her doubts became words that he'd heard.

He scoffed. "You're joking."

"I'm not." She wasn't…but she was feeling incredibly embarrassed because he stood up came up from his chair and pulled her up from her chair rather roughly. Part of her stomach started to twist itself in anticipation simply because of the sensation of his hands on her. "I- I really think you're not all that bad. You're her son…but you can't be that bad."

His fingers were trailing across her arm and she felt her eyes drift to his hands. She gulped and then her gaze ran up his arm until she was looking right at his mouth, her face moving the slightest bit closer to his as he spoke. "I am." The tone of venom in his voice was unmistakeable, and it saved her from making the biggest mistake she would have by kissing him first here in his meeting room. She gulped back the tight feeling that was building in her entire body. "I'm not giving you what you want because it's the right thing to do, Tsukushi." His ulterior motive was left unsaid as he looked straight at her and she felt every part of her body thrum with energy as she stumbled backwards. The room they were in was large but not large enough to escape Tsukasa Domyouji. The more she walked back the further he walked towards her until all she hit was wall on her back and he was the only thing left in front of her. Her only road ahead.

"No- you don't mean-"

"I can show you what I mean very easily…I desperately want to." His voice dropped several octaves, her legs quivered just the slightest as she struggled to maintain her composure. "I'll give you whatever you want…whatever the fuck you want. Just say yes." She heard it in his voice, the way he hated what he was saying. "Do you want me to give you an extended severance package? I'll do that. More shares? Sure. Do you want me to bankrupt my inheritance here at Domyouji Zaibatsu? Why the fuck not? Tsukushi, I'd give you whatever you ask for now because I can't think with you around…and I need to get over this because you said it yourself. There's no reality, there's no future, but there is now…and I want you. Like a trophy, like a prize, like you're mine…for however long I want you."

She slapped him. She felt her eyes tear because he'd admitted what she thought but she felt like he'd also stabbed a knife straight to her heart. She'd grown up in hardship but her sweet disposition and hard-working attitude had made her a favourite to everyone who had ever gotten to know her.

This was not to be the case with Tsukasa. He may have wanted her, but he didn't think her worthy of the attention and it was almost worse imagining that he thought of her like a stain on his mind. It hurt more because she realized she definitely didn't think of him that way because the way he'd behaved with her when she'd first met him had unfortunately had the circumstance of having her look on him positively.

Fake or not, she'd fallen just a little for the rich bastard in front of her.

And it turned out that the rich bastard just wanted her for a cheap lay in expensive sheets.

She walked out of the room, feeling her chest struggle to breathe as she shut the door behind her. She felt like running but she could barely move as her hand reached her chest.

She should have run though because in seconds Tsukasa whipped the door open, his hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her back roughly to his frame, dragging her towards his personal office.

She practically cried as she tried to hit him, but they met so late that most of the building was absent save for a security guard far enough that he wouldn't hear her struggle. "You don't get to hit me and leave like that."

"And what the hell do you expect me to do?"

"Anything but that." He hollered back as he pulled her into his office, the one with the couch they'd laughed on. She'd sat there admiring his profile like a fool, unaware of how before she'd known the man had crawled his way under her skin and into her heart.

He shut the door locking it behind her as she moved to the corner of the office. She needn't have bothered. "Take off your clothes." He growled approaching her with steps that thundered in this tiny excuse of a room.

Whatever she'd been expecting from, she wasn't sure it was this. "Excuse me? Who do you think you are?"

"I am a man of few words and a man of even less patience. I said take off your clothes Miss Makino and you have yourself what you came for." Her last name again. He was trying his best to distance himself from her now. Now she understood why she was so confused around him.

Right now she was seeing Domyouji Tsukasa the lawyer…but there was glimpses of another man there. The real man who played around, made stupid jokes and the one who- at least she thought- cared for her.

"I refuse to stand here and be treated like some two-bit prostitute-"

A shiver ran through her body as she heard his laugh, sadistic and filled with a demonic sentiment as his entire body revelled in the motion. He glimmered in the barely lit office.

Then he took off his shirt and Tsukushi balked quite openly as he stalked towards her and she had to close her eyes because this was just what she'd imagined when she was in the washroom but this scenario wasn't what she'd wanted- not at all.

It was different to sleep with someone with who you had friendly banter, it was an entirely different thing to sleep with someone who thought you were a piece of shit on his shoe. For a man like Tsukasa Domyouji, that would give him power over her, he would view sex as a way of dominating her and that wasn't an idea she was entirely comfortable with.

"Prostitutes ask for less than what you have and have far more charm. I'd rather characterize you as a thorn in my side, a bad bone in my rib I wish to remove, like a rotten Eve." She should have slapped him harder, he was spouting nonsense. "For the past month, I've listened to you chatter on and on about the rights of the company you're working for and how I'm the son of the devil for even trying to do what makes the most logical sense- so let me show you Miss Makino." She felt her insides squirm uncomfortably, like she wanted to ask him to call her by her first name again, to be that Tsukasa again. "I am the son of the devil, and I am a horrible person and I have no issues with pushing you past what you're comfortable with. And I know while this is what you want, you are entirely too uncomfortable with this to make the move yourself so let me do it for you." His hand landed beside her face, not quite touching her skin. "And do you know why I'm so confident?"

She needed to stay calm, look uncaring, but when she felt his thumb run tenderly by her ear, pushing her hair back in a surprisingly affectionate gesture she couldn't stop the shudder that ran through her frame. "Why?" Why did he think he could toy with her like this? Why did he think that this was allowed? In what universe, was he allowed to treat her like this?

Tsukasa could have laughed but he settled for a smirk. He'd defeated her, the way her breath shuddered past her lips, the way he could practically feel the sweat off her pores and barely had to hold her heart close to him to feel how nervous she really was here beside him.

So he settled for a smirk, knowing that he, Tsukasa Domyouji, had succeeded. He always knew the prey's tell, and it was why he was such a great lawyer. Smart he may not be, but cunning, shrewd, and extremely good at the practice of satisfaction he was. It had got him everywhere and he wanted to use it today to get Tsukushi to where she needed to be. She couldn't be the girl who was his downfall, he couldn't fail to close a deal because of her and he couldn't let her be the reason the old woman talked to him like that.

Even as he thought it, a foul taste entered his mouth as he watched Makino Tsukushi falter when his palm slid behind her neck, her face ever closer to his as his breath grew shallower. "I see the way you breathe when we're together past a decent hour," Who was he to talk? His own breath was the same, he echoed in his mind. "Your fingers just barely smell like sex every time you come past I shake your hands like you need something to take the edge off if you're going to be spending three or more hours with me…now," He needed to turn this switch off. He felt the fire inside of him from his anger at his mother flow through his fingers as he ran his hand down from her face down her arms, to her hips till he felt the edge of her dress and ducked his fingers through the edge.

"I know you don't kiss people you don't like but I do and I love the idea of me taking the place of –" The skin on her inner thighs was smooth, soft and intoxicating – his fingers crawled higher till they found silk and he saw her gasp feeling her in his palm, ripe for the plucking. "Now Miss Makino, will you take your clothes off or would you prefer that I did it for you?"

She didn't get to answer because his lips were on hers, his hands out of her underwear and on her hips pulling her to his frame. He was screaming into her, the vibrato of his mouth waking ever cell inside of her. She felt her hands wrap over his skin, his tongue run past her bottom lip, tugging, pulling, and growling as he lifted her up from the ground.

Reflexively her legs wrapped around his hips and now that she was the slightest bit taller than him, his lips left her mouth and pushed their way down her neck. "This is wro-" Tsukasa decided to not give her the opportunity to finish her sentence because the words coming out of her mouth were blasphemy, especially when he felt her ankles flex so she held onto him tighter.

As much as Tsukushi wanted to run away, the other part of her wanted to stay so despite whatever was running through her mind she let herself be weak…but if she was going to do this she had to know. "Wait." She pushed him off her and looked at him seriously. "Why are you doing this?"

He looked mildly irritated with her considering the compromising situation they were in. "Isn't that a little too obvious a question? Didn't we just have the most long-winded discussion about how I want you?"

"No. It's not…because there's too many reasons this is not what we should be doing right now." She took a deep breath trying to calm the emotions running frantically in her mind, she was sad, angry, hurt but more than anything she did want this right now. But she had to know, she had to know what he really thought because she needed to know which Tsukasa was kissing her. "So why are you doing this? Is this some fucked up way to get the upper hand on me? Just be honest."

He scoffed and pulled her away from the ground. Then he set her down on his desk and she felt mildly uncomfortable with how intimate they could become at any given point. Part of her detested that she brought the topic up, but another part of her knew she couldn't go through with this if she didn't know clearly. "If we slept together would that change how you act towards me?"

 _If the sex was great, yeah why not? Maybe?_ She could have said her thoughts openly but she didn't. "If it's concerning the acquisition…no. It won't, but the fact you said that shit out there really pissed me off…and then you barged in here and – it's all totally a shit storm- and I was crying and now I'm not and you're kissing me-"

"Shit fuck, shit fuck." He shot back her blankly and she almost burst out laughing at his monotonous tone.

"What?" She managed to mumble out behind muffled giggles.

"I'm angry at you because I want you."

"And you want me because-"

"Look lets not pretend to be something we're not. You and I we're from different places right?" She nodded. "We don't make sense together as a couple right?" He was right there too, she had trouble envisioning any sort of future with him. "You want me." Okay there she had to pause, yes she did want him, but she didn't want him to know that. She'd never been that open with a guy before. It just kind of – automatically happened. "Oh come on, just say it. Yes, you want me, or we're not going to sleep together."

"We're not?" She couldn't help it, she was a little disappointed now that things had gone this far and messed up whatever cordial demented relationship she'd developed with the Domyouji heir.

"I am a lawyer, I'm a man and I'm acquiring your company. I'm not stupid. I need consent. I'm not touching you again until you say yes." He backed off her and immediately her body craved the warmth his figure had provided her and she cursed her weak impulses.

"While you're at it get a waiver."

"Well it wasn't bribing, or asshole 101 but I knew you had to learn something in law school." He teased a smile unlike any this evening floating on his face. She marveled internally for just a second at how quickly this night had turned from the worst of her life to something- not quite so horrible. "A verbal contract will do."

She was silent. She could walk right out of here. He'd given her out…but the truth was she didn't really want it. Finally, Tsukushi could only bring herself to say one thing. "You say it too then."

"You're kidding." There was no amusement in his voice. "You need me to say it?! I'm definitely not going to charge you with rape. Don't worry."

"Yeah well…out there it didn't look like you wanted it. In here, you're acting like an animal. I'm getting some mixed signals man. One second, you think I'm worse than a prostitute the next you're begging to sleep with me." That little touch of anger came in him again and she saw him falter like she'd poured cold water on this whole event which she supposed she had in a way. Still, it didn't seem wrong for her to ask.

"An animal? Begging?" He choked out. "Okay you're really pushing it but fine, you want to hear it. You'll hear it. I want you. I want you because I can't stop thinking about you. Since that first fucking day you walked in here in that stupid red dress I kept thinking of what it would be like to take your dress off and so I want you sprawled across that table with your mouth in mine, your clothes on the ground and our-"

"That's more than enough!" She yelped the blush rising healthily on her cheeks as he smirked bashfully, proud when he saw Tsukushi literally fan herself. "Okay fine...I am okay with that. Sounds agreeable enough. This is me giving consent."

"Romantic." He responded sarcastically but he didn't need much more than that. He started walking back towards her. Getting Makino Tsukushi to admit she wanted him would be harder than he thought, but it wasn't like she'd rejected him, and he more than easily could ask her body to tell him what she wanted even if her brain wasn't willing to spell it out. "That's not very inspiring."

"I'm sorry I didn't minor in dirty talk." She blushed again when his hands found their way to the zip on the back of her dress, her fingers almost painfully nervous. How long had it been? Two- maybe three years? Since she'd taken the last man she'd slept with and put him in prison? Right that had been a real positive relationship. Oh and then there was that one night stand ages ago - but that hardly counted she'd been a drunken mess. She was entirely too sober for this. "Hey- listen."

"What?" He asked lazily as he played with her hair and found his fingers tousling the strands enjoyably. Makino Tsukushi's hair was decidedly the most interesting hair he'd ever found his fingers in. Normally in Shigeru's his hands would get stuck because the woman would never brush her hair, he'd always brush it for her. Jolin was entirely too sticky because of all the product she'd used, and other women had never made enough of a mark for him to marvel on their hair but Tsukushi's hair was like strands of water that floated on his skin. Light, soft and it smelled amazing – like a forest of pine.

Probably some cheap shampoo that he'd never heard of but like Tsukushi herself, he found it hallucinogenic. "This is just a one-time thing right?" His eyes scrolled over to hers and he gulped. The big brown innocence of them jarred him a little.

"Will you appreciate it if I say the truth?" His hands ran across her bare skin and she shivered in the air of the office. "Is it okay to say I don't know? It'd be easier if it was." It was the most honest thing he'd said all night and also the most confusing.

It didn't deter her heart though. "Yeah, it's okay." This time it was she that closed the gap between their frames in a surprisingly forward manner as Tsukasa felt Tsukushi pull him closer to her, her fingers running across the expanse of his back as he undid the clasp on her bra and tweaked one of her breasts till it formed a peak that made him smile into their kiss.

Tsukushi wasn't sure what the right answer was…but then again with a man that was so horribly wrong for her could there be a right or wrong answer to her question? All she knew right now was that he was right, they'd been playing around each other for weeks and it was time it came to end-

Maybe it would be good to just get it all out and over and done with.

Once the fantasy disappeared from her head- the man in front of her who was making her say his name and close her eyes could disappear too.


	11. Chapter 10

Tsukushi felt the sunlight glimmer into her eyes and immediately darted awake in fear. The skin under her own body shifted and she leaned back down quickly to level herself on Domyouji Tsukasa.

This, it turned out, was a horrible decision because it prompted the lion to wake from his slumber and grin up at her in a predatory fashion that was causing her mind to run back through the barely coherent memories she had of last night post sleep.

He didn't bother saying anything, which she could appreciate because really what could he say to her?

So she said something. It sounded practiced, but safe. Like something that anyone with a shred of self-respect would say after their weird arrangement last night. "I'm sorry for waking you…I should go." She started to bring herself off him when she froze mid-push up, feeling his thumbs running slowly past the small of her waist.

Then almost too predictably, she felt his lips reach for hers. This kiss, compared to the others they'd shared in the last few hours, held something more in their movements than the simple desire to pleasure. This time, with his slow languid movements, and his soft pulls she felt like they held the promise of something more which was equally, if not more, frightening than the way she'd seen Domyouji Tsukasa all but breakdown in front of her last night.

She had to let go, she had to let go of his stupid lips. Come on Tsukushi, one last bite-

It was pathetic that Tsukasa was the one who let her lips go first as he peered into her eyes making her feel all the more uncomfortable considering their current clothing situation. "Good morning." His drawl was thick, deep, lazy like he wanted nothing more than to not bother moving from this position they were in.

Tsukushi could relate, it was comfortable physically - emotionally though it was complete torture. "Good morning. I really need to go…it's a work day."

"It's a Saturday." He retorted.

"Right...so...I still have work to do. I'm leaving my firm right? So lots to clean up." She huffed being caught flat out in her lie.

She watched Tsukasa's eyes change in understanding as he snickered. This upset her even more than the whole experience of this morning, she could do without him laughing at her. As it was, she felt like she was a laughing stock in his presence anyways. "It's okay Tsukushi, I get it. Just be honest. I've been here before. You're not the first girl. Admit you don't want to spend time with me."

"It's not th-" She grumbled rubbing her eyes. "God, I'm exhausted."

"And why wouldn't you be? I tried to stop you after round three but no- so you only got five hours of sleep." She flashed her eyes dangerously at him. "Oh come on, just relax. It's done, now's the fun part."

She wouldn't necessarily call this the fun part. This was the, that was then and this is now part. He shouldn't confuse the two. "It was fine."

"I'd say it was better than fine. I swear at one point your voice was so high the window almost cracked-"

"Shut up." She grumbled no longer feeling any need to dance around his feelings. Of course, Tsukasa laughed at her again and she scrambled around the office putting pieces of her clothing back together picking up frames in her mind.

First, it was her dress and the memory of Tsukasa's deft fingers leaving a trail straight down her center as his hands played on her skin. Then it was her slip, and she remembered a thick trail of wet kisses right down to her core and she'd struggled to keep her voice quiet.

Then she picked up her underwear and she couldn't remember anything anymore because the live Tsukasa in the room with her had snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her back to his frame.

He mischeviously yanked the silk in her hands out from under her fingertips smirking proudly back at her. His gesture, almost painfully obvious, hinting what he was thinking as he held onto it tightly.

Tsukushi on the other hand resisted the urge to stomp the ground childishly and ask for it back.

Obviously her lacklustre response to his silent request prompted him to talk. "So you're just going to leave?"

Like this was new news? "We said this was a one time thing." She tried to keep her voice level, like she didn't care. Despite her best efforts, a harsh sort of tone underlay the words she spoke.

He seemed to have caught her tone and quickly corrected her. "I don't remember saying that."

That, surprisingly, pissed her off. She knew because she'd asked and well he hadn't been entirely clear about it she was certain of that but if it wasn't one way it certainly wasn't the other either. "Well, you did. And it's the right thing to do considering our very complicated situation and it was a moment of weakness - I mean a good moment of weakness but it doesn't have to mean anything either -"

"I think the right thing to do is stay." He interrupted her...probably best, she could have continued talking forever. Being completely honest with herself she recognized she wasn't thinking straight right now.

How could she when she had a naked Domyouji Tsukasa standing in front of her? Come on, you'd be thrown off too. "Underwear." Dear god, the fact they were having this conversation completely naked in his office on a Saturday morning was just absurd.

"What?"

"Underwear please?" She opened and closed her palm quickly. When he wasn't willing to give it up she grumbled, annoyed, reaching over his tall head where the underwear was. Trying to reach it regularly proved particularly difficult so she tried jumping up and down to no avail. "Tsukasa-san please quit playing games-"

"Ah!" He was looking at her far too happily. "You called me Tsukasa-san, you know you can drop the san…now if you said sama...but we can leave that for another night-"

Oh shit, she had said his name hadn't she? She had added the honorific. "That doesn't mean anything." She played it off shaking her hair out of her face or rather on to her face so she could hide the growing red flush on her cheeks.

"Doesn't it?" He leaned forward and she sighed moving backwards in a futile manner. All of this was too deja-vu, him being all sultry and sexy and pushing her against the wall- god, they were going to end up right where they started weren't they? Even worse was they didn't have the distraction of clothing - it would be too easy to go from 0 to 100.

She really didn't want that. She really really didn't want that. Not right now. Last night she iterated to herself was a moment of weakness in a flurry of emotion, she had to be stronger this morning. She was stronger. She was the fucking best. She wasn't going to let some little spoiled kid like Domyouji Tsukasa boss her around no matter how much she'd enjoyed spending time with him. "Why is that? You call me Tsukushi all the time and that-"

"And that means something. I don't bother remembering most girls names."

Like this was supposed to make her feel better? The fact he remembered her name obviously meant she had to lose all her morals, values and sell her mind, body and soul to this man? "Most girls aren't trying to wring 5 billion yen out of you either."

He responded rather calmly, despite her more frantic voice. "Yes, and most other women don't rile me up like you do. Most other women aren't this hard to convince. Most other women don't become the sole subject of my thoughts morning, day and night."

His words managed to melt the hard resolve on her mind the slightest, and really her mind was really the only obstacle…her heart…well she wouldn't think about that…and her body please. She had a hard enough time controlling it with him before and now- "Please, you just want me because the sex was good."

"Like that's a bad thing?" He scoffed. "That's definitely part of it for me of course, and you don't? God don't be such a martyr, admit it Tsukushi…"

"Admit what?" She stuttered despite all of her confidence and cursed how she was starting to observe how soft his features looked today. Today, he looked like what she'd wanted to see last night. Today, he looked like he cared.

"You want me." She gulped back the knot in her throat. "You want me bad...and around as a bit more than your rival in law."

She managed a giggle at that, girlishly covering her mouth surprised to see a small flush rise on Tsukasa's face as he smiled back at her kindly. Like he was happy that she'd laughed at something he'd said…he needed to stop doing the right things. If he was just an asshole trying to shove his hands into her underwear today morning she could totally slap him and walk away but he was being surprisingly gentlemanly considering how they'd ended up in bed last night. Maybe that was why the Domyouji prince was being gentlemanly..."That sounds like you're related to me."

"In your dreams…" He teased and saw her flush grow deeper as she managed to jump again to try to grab her underwear. "Say please…and bounce again…harder this time…and right on top of me."

"Tsukasa!" She yelled and he snickered handing off the silk back to her.

"Fine, fine…" He saw her stomp into her underwear and glare at him as she slipped on her dress over her head. He could only raise an eyebrow. "Aren't you forgetting a step?"

"You ripped the hooks off my bra, it's basically useless now anyways."

"Maybe you should buy better quality bras."

"Yeah, well maybe you should- not be so-"

What did she want him not to be?

Everything about Domyouji Tsukasa was scary because the longer she stayed here the more she didn't want to leave. "I'll see you later." She cut herself off, better safe than sorry.

Tsukasa proved a little harder to cut off. He grabbed her by the hand pulled her back and shook his head. "If you're doing things like this…at least let me drop you home." He pulled her resistant body back to the couch and she was getting all too aware of the fact that he was just openly naked in front of her now like he didn't care. She was wearing clothes now, she was decent, and she'd really prefer it if he did the same. Then again, why should he?

So she sat down and found herself unable to tear her eyes away from him as he put his clothes on languidly. Like an anti-stripper...and she was absurdly freaked out by how much she was enjoying watching him put his clothes on. "So, here's what I propose. I'll give you your severance concession and-"

"Are we- is that part of you on now?" She mumbled as she saw him slip his boxers on and smirk at her.

"Anytime you want to turn the other part of me on-"

The worst, that was the absolute worst pick up line. Despite that - she laughed and then grumbled rubbing her head feeling a small throbbing starting. "I need coffee."

"Disgusting habit…that I completely whole heartedly endorse." He rolled his eyes and breathed out of his mouth. "We also both need toothpaste."

"Don't you keep some in your desk for other morning afters?" Now that his chest was safely under the image of his dark red shirt it was easier to talk to him normally. He was no longer – just so openly lascivious.

"You'd be shocked at how many girls are so vanilla that they don't like the desk as much as you did. I normally have a bit more control and can get myself to some sort of room with a bed and a washroom nearby." She flushed bright red as he winked at her. She was starting to feel warm around her neck. Was- was he flirting with her? Was he flirting with her…badly? Was this some sort of prank? Was he making fun of her? Worst of all, was she enjoying it? "Anyways, you'll get the severance concession, the strong payments to the entire shareholder base, a handsome lumpsum paid out to your father in staggered payments and- sorry is there anything else?"

What did she want from Domyouji Tsukasa? She wanted some sort of wake-up call. She wanted to know where he stood. She, god even she was a little disturbed by this, she wanted to understand him. She wanted to know if it was entirely okay that she Tsukushi, who had a perfectly controlled life, was okay to play around with the rich playboy?

She couldn't say any of that though. So she settled for something that was a little easier to deliver. "Eggs and coffee."

She'd never seen him look happier. "There's a place down the street. No one goes there, absolutely filthy- been shut down twice-I never go there but I have a feeling you'll like it."

"Sounds perfect." She snickered despite herself at his description. Tsukasa held his hand out to her and, despite her better judgment, she took it. "Lead the way."

30 minutes later, she could say this was the closest she'd get to a date with Domyouji Tsukasa. She could also say Tsukasa was horribly indecisive with breakfast. "They're all so good. I mean I want the egg plate, but I also want the French toast, and then what about the pancakes? And don't even get me started on the strawberry waffles and the toppings-"

"Sir, with all due respect you've been in the booth for 20 minutes." The stressed out waitress huffed. "We've told you we can combine all the offerings."

"Yes, but that's just excessive. Do I look like that type of guy to you?"

"You could stand to put on a few pounds." She offered helpfully but the glare she received from the Domyouji prince made Makino suppress loud snickers. Poor girl.

She decided to help her out a bit. "I don't know Tsukasa…I would have said you worked up an appetite." Tsukasa snorted almost unattractively. How did a man look almost unattractive? Tsukushi could tell you, it was the look in his eyes that bugged out but still managed to stay relevantly warm and inviting. Similar to a cup of hot cocoa that spilled on the sides of the cup from Starbucks but you still wanted to sip through it regardless of what a mess it was going to make your hands.

She'd just compared Tsukasa to a cup of cocoa. What was coming of her mushy mind? "We'll take the French toast and the egg plate and just share it all." She replied on his behalf when he couldn't quite speak after her words. The waitress bowed gratefully towards her and ushered off to the kitchen.

Tsukasa continued looking at her a little foolishly. "In a way, I'm a little grateful."

"Have you always been this bad with menus?"

"Not normally…it's just breakfast." He snickered. "I used to drive my sister mad. She'd have to order three things just for the two of us."

"So I expected you to be a little prissy…take us to a fancy smancy banquet hall breakfast buffet…not a diner."

"Oh I'm sorry I was under the impression you didn't want to be wined and dined? We can do this the hard way."

"I thought we already did."

"Touche." He grinned looking towards the bar. There was something eerily easy about this conversation, this place, this girl for him. "So Tsukushi Makino, tell me about yourself. Not your family. Not your hotel. You."

"Why?" Tsukushi scoffed as she thanked the waitress by bowing her head when she delivered the two of them coffee and Tsukushi immediately busied herself with pouring creamer in. When she took a gulp of the cheap coffee, her rather frantic soul felt instantly comforted. "You know too much about me as it is."

"That is true…I know you studied as a scholarship student at Todai. Can you imagine if we were at Eitoku together?"

She was visibly perturbed again and quickly gulped coffee hoping the feeling would disappear. "I never told you that."

"I also know that you put your ex-boyfriend in jail…he was creepy though. Selling underage porn is really bad. How did you find out about that?"

This just got weirder and weirder. Now he knew about Junpei too. Great. "I also don't remember sharing this information. And like hell I'd tell you."

"Here's something you don't have to tell me. For your age, you're really bad at dirty talk."

She raised her hands up. "I'm just here for the free food."

"Okay fine, you're right. It's unfair." He agreed. "Sakurako did her research well… you can ask me anything you want to know." This surprised Tsukushi because she'd never imagined Domyouji Tsukasa as a very open person.

Then again, what did she know, the guy had been walking around her openly naked with no shame…maybe he was completely different than what she thought. "How do you know Rui?" She settled for and saw the glimmer of spark exit from his gaze.

Still he answered. "We went to Eitoku elementary together, I bullied him, he fell asleep – it's a long boring story. It mostly ends in him being the only one of my friends whose not a complete idiot…though that's not fair to Akira, who is an idiot by association with his family. My turn, why do you care so much about Rui?"

"I don't." She corrected a little too quickly. She didn't want him to misunderstand. What she felt for Rui was like a flighty dream that lifted her to the clouds. The way she felt for Tsukasa kept her shackled to the ground in a way that was entirely too 'real'. That was the only way she could describe it. "He's just a safe topic of conversation." The next few minutes passed in silence as the waitress brought them their plates and Tsukushi smiled as she saw Tsukasa dive like a child for the French toast. "Hungry?"

He could have said something incredibly cheesy, brought up last night again but thankfully he seemed to have learned his lesson. "Starving."

Tsukushi felt her own hunger dissipate in a peculiarly odd fashion as she started taking heaps of eggs from her plate and putting it on his. "Here, eat more."

Tsukasa looked up to see Tsukushi splitting up her sausages and putting it in perfectly bite-sized portions on his plate and suddenly found it very hard to keep chewing his toast. "Aren't you hungry?"

"I'm good, I'll just eat a bit. I mainly needed the coffee anyways." He cut up the French toast and put it on his fork hovering it over her mouth. "I'm really okay Tsukasa you don't need to-"

"It's not fair you give me almost all your food and don't take anything back-"

"No really I'm- Tsukasa-" As her mouth opened to say his name he took the opportunity to push the fork into her mouth marvelling at how surprised she looked as he slipped the metal out of her mouth again.

"Tasty?"

Tsukushi marvelled at the sight before her. Tsukasa with one elbow on the table, the sunlight from the window glimmering off his fork, his gaze kind and generous and she wondered how long this was going to last? This was like a scene out of a dream, or a highly rated drama.

She couldn't ask him that without ruining the moment though…and she decided for now, just for this meal, she'd stop doing it. She'd stop asking questions that he couldn't answer and she couldn't be bothered to dig for. She'd just live it. It wasn't like anything was going to happen after breakfast anyways. "It's perfect."

Tsukasa couldn't help but agree and find yet another reason to hate her mother. "And the deal?"

She shook her head grinning. "That's perfect too. We can set something up with my father, and maybe your mother...and sign it off. And then that's it. So consider this our last time together alone." Part of her was testing him, she wanted to see his response. She could still walk away fairly unscathed. She could tuck last night into the memories of wild, crazy things that turned out to be amazingly stupid.

But if Tsukushi was being honest with herself, that wasn't what she wanted. "You must be delusional." He laughed putting eggs into his mouth as she sipped her coffee slowly. She felt her heart quicken when he looked at her again, this time he looked a little more like the man she'd seen last night. Direct, pushy, unbelievably attractive with his hair falling into his eyes. "This is it."

"What's it?"

"This." He pointed between the two of them. "This is a thing."

She decided to make fun of him as she mimicked his motions jokingly. "A 'thing'?"

"I'm not going to call it anything else." He sighed. "Tsukushi, just stop being so difficult."

"Why?"

"Because you know this is going to happen. Just give in, for once in your sake. Give up."

"And why do I have to keep losing to you?"

"Because you're always the real winner anyways." He conceded. "And I've made my peace with it because I-" He couldn't finish his sentence because at that exact moment another waitress came to fill up their coffee but like a fool she spilled the coffee all over the table. "Hey- watch it! Who the fuck do you-" He yelped ready to bite her head off when he saw the look on the waitress' face and felt his stomach fall to his toes.

It was Okawahara Shigeru.

A/N:So I was super scared I made this OOC but I think its okay because Tsukasa was the one who chased Makino and I've tried to keep that sentiment alive throughout the whole story- just his manner of doing it is a bit different. At some point I'll introduce Yuki, Soujiro and Akira's plot again but this is just so much fun to writeee!


	12. Chapter 11

"You know…I have to admit. I thought it was a little weird seeing you and Tsukasa together. I mean just even in the same room, I can't think of two people more similar." Tsukushi felt her eyebrows twitch as she looked up from where she'd been looking this past 5 minutes- at the coffee in her hand. The coffee cup had been reassuring, warm, and reliable- pretty much everything Hanazawa Rui and his…friend hadn't been.

"And...how would we be similar?"

"To be fair you're both lawyers, incredibly tenacious and both look incredibly frightening when you're dealing with people who've angered you in anyway." Tsukushi almost spat out her coffee. She wasn't frightening was she? Oh dear god, the man she thought had pretty marble eyes thought she was the female incarnation of the devil himself.

She refused to say his name, she refused to even think it because she had become entirely aware of the fact that even imagining his name in letters in her mind led to many other thoughts related to how she and the devil lawyer who was the context of this very conversation had danced very well together and those thoughts were best kept locked away.

To be fair, what did she expect from the guy? The devil was a rich boy, player extraordinaire who for some god forsaken reason had decided he'd been head over heels for her for exactly 18 hours?

It wasn't that they'd slept together that bothered her – hell she'd do it again if she got the chance but it was the part where he pretended – where he – god – pretended he wanted something with her!

That was what had pissed the shit out of her. Hell she'd almost fallen for it! She'd thought that he saw her as something real and for a second – just for a second- this was something that had excited her more than the prospect of just sleeping with him.

Maybe that was the most disappointing part, it wasn't him- it was her. It was her falling for a class piece of asshole yet again. As if Junpei hadn't been enough pain, heartache and headache for one lifetime. "Tsukushi-?"

Oh right, Hanazawa-san. He wasn't an asshole – just oblivious and pretty and trying very hard to have a decent conversation with her. "Sorry Hanazawa-san, what were you saying?"

As if intuitively sensing her resistance to talk about his best friend, the pleasant man with the chocolate coloured eyes simply shook his head. "You're in your own world aren't you?" She blushed a little and Rui felt a small smile float on his face. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"Whatever is bothering you?"

 _Oh you mean how your friend hasn't called me in three weeks even though I've willingly left him three voicemails all related to a case that we were supposed to close weeks ago that my father constantly asks me about because he's running into slow and certain financial ruin? Again? And he only responds to unfeeling emails?_ "If it's okay with you...I'd rather not." She awkwardly laughed and at Hanazawa-san's faltered expression of kindness felt the need to explain herself further. "We don't really have that sort of friendship…do we?" She expressed uncertain how else to explain why she'd just shut him down.

He nodded and she felt appeased. "So...we can start now." He was teasing her, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips that was melting some of her frustration away.

Later that night, Tsukushi found another audience. One that was far less willing to listen but yet found herself facing the brunt of the truth of what was really running through Tsukushi's mind. "You know – I really thought he meant it." Tsukushi grumbled over rice with Yuki as she saw the slightly younger girl yawn. "Are you seriously yawning?"

"This is the sixth time you've mentioned this Tsukushi! Just go do something about it if you're feeling so bad about it. You know where he lives!"

"Actually…I really don't. Did I leave out that part? None of this happened on a bed."

"My god Tsukushi." Yuki giggled blushing red. She had heard worse but she'd never expected it from Tsukushi who was about as vanilla as you could get. "You're worse than the girls at the bar now."

"Well…why hasn't he called?" Even as she said it Tsukushi cringed. She should have just left that morning, god why did she have to go have breakfast with him and listen to that crap? Maybe that was his sadistic way of leaving women…giving them hope.

And she'd fallen for it? That beach crap and the crap in the office and the rubbing alcohol on her feet? What an asshole- what a piece of work- what a- could she charge him with something? False representation? Treason? Maybe some dirty insider trading?

"I thought you said he did call." Yuki interrupted her thoughts as she played with the grains between her chopsticks.

Tsukushi immediately corrected her. "That's different. He called to confirm we're still on for tomorrow. That my friend...was a week ago." The more quietly, in an almost ashamed tone that she was bringing this up she added. "He didn't even ask me how I was." She bit her lip accidentally when she was trying to break through a chunk of caked rice from the rice cooker.

"Well there's your opening." Yuki raised her eyebrows as she slowly considered her own situation between a completely different set of boys. "Make him regret every decision he's made these last three weeks."

"Treat him like shit?"

"And then some." Yuki grinned pointing her chopsticks at her friend for emphasis as Tsukushi giggled unsurely.

She wasn't too sure she could do that convincingly either.

Another day, another omiai, how would he get out of this one?

Tsukasa turned to look at the iridiescently pretty Fukuyoshi Marisa. She peered up at him brilliantly with glassy eyes that made her look like she wasn't from this planet, skin shimmering white like a pearl. Indeed she spoke like an alien too, and it gave him the insane urge to sarcastically respond to all of her oblivious questions like. "Neh, we're supposed to get married right?"

"No. I was brought here to ask you if you liked pancakes." He muttered quite seriously and was shocked to find Marisa had excellent hearing.

"Really?" She blinked quickly, her perfectly formed curls bouncing cheerfully in tone with her voice. "Well, I LOVE pancakes."

"Great." He grinned brightly. "If there's nothing else-" He was just about to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone when Marisa's hand leaned a little too inappropriately across the table to touch him and he felt his eyes flash somewhat dangerously.

In the past few weeks, he'd felt himself change back into a person he hadn't been in a long time. "Sure there is, do you like pancakes?"

For one, he couldn't believe someone so stupid was approved by his mother to actually marry him. "Sorry Marisa," And then for two, because he couldn't really explain himself, he got up and left the room.

This was his third omiai in three weeks.

What had changed that had caused him to be abused with three weeks worth of bullshit dates?

Well it could be any one of two things.

The first was very obvious. Mostly because he'd been careless and impulsive with the little Makino princess. Mind you this was not a decision he in anyway regretted but it was somewhat of an inevitability that his mother had found out he'd slept with Makino Tsukushi and gone into overdrive to get him married to an incessant idiot lest he break free and go rogue with 'new' money.

To be fair she didn't have too much to worry about, it had been three weeks since he'd slept with Makino Tsukushi and not a peep had come from her since…and to be fair he supposed he hadn't contacted her either.

Well okay that wasn't entirely fair. She had sent him a response to his latest email proposal saying she presented the new legal documents to her father. She also added that she had appreciated the additional clause that indicated Domyouji Zaibatsu would take care of the financial hit faced by the Makinos on their Kyoto freeze.

But that was EMAIL – that wasn't why he'd sent her all of these concessions. He'd even called her but she'd sounded so uninterested he'd hung up immediately.

When she'd read his new proposal in all honesty, he'd expected her to come knocking down the door to his office, kissing the very ground he walked, using that delectably plush mouth of hers to suck the life out of him while he reciprocated in equal measure till the both of them were sweaty on the carpet of his office just like last time-

What was she doing now anyways? Would it be entirely inappropriate for him to barge into her house uninvited?

He shook his head a little as he felt the fog he delightfully called Makino's body flitter from his mind as he focused on the second reason his mother could be abusing him with these women.

Shigeru.

After she had all but made a mess that morning he'd seen her with Makino, Shigeru had vanished before his very eyes. He'd gone back to the restaurant every week twice in an attempt to find her. The Shigeru he knew would never have been in that sort of arrangement - but she had taken the chance to talk to her out of his grasp.

That hadn't meant he'd go down without a fight and so he'd learned a few things from his own sources...but as was often with Shigeru he found his mind wandering to the memories he had of his only relationship.

 _"Shigeru- Shigeru - JUST LISTEN - god please, it's not over come on - it's okay we can still do this- I still want to do this. ME. I'm not going to listen to her. It's okay!"_

 _"No, it's not okay." She shrieked loudly pushing him at his shoulders. "How the hell can you think it's okay that you hurt him so bad that he's sitting in a hospital unconscious right now? Are you mad?! He's my best friend Tsukasa! My husband-to-be just put my best friend in the hospital! How can you think that's okay?!"_

 _"He was making moves on you- you fucking know that. He's always fucking tried to make it look like we're just a transaction and because my mother's trying to break us off! He's testing me that fucker-"_

 _"YOU should know better than that. YOU should trust me. YOU should trust you. This isn't even the first time you've done this! How am I supposed to trust you?"_

 _"Oh come on you didn't even know the last guy I beat up for you Shigeru – he was just some idiot who started kissing you in the middle of the club? What did you want me to do? Thank him?!" He couldn't believe she was bringing that up. He would have thought she would have been happy he taught that idiot a lesson._

 _"He's an idiot your mother had to pay half a million dollars to keep his mouth shut." She silenced him with a look as she shook her head and he felt a cold creep into his heart. "I can't do this anymore, I can't…I'm not okay." She'd crumbled in front of him begging, pleading to be released as he saw her bound tight by large ribbons of white silk. "You need to listen to your mother. We need to end this. You're mental Tsukasa- you need help. Why are you so angry? I've tried. I've tried to understand your anger, love it, calm it - but I can't control it."_

 _He leaned down to her level as he saw her shake in tears and he grabbed her by her shoulders roughly pulling her up as he saw her gasp and look at him in fear. It broke his heart that she thought he was going to hurt her- she should have understood. She should have understood how much he loved her, how much he cared for her - how much he did what he did for her - for them._

 _"You want to leave?" He growled and saw her eyes widen as her sobs silenced. "Go the fuck ahead."_

 _He felt his hands burn as he gripped her so tight he could feel his nails puncturing her skin and he saw her flinch. "Tsukasa-" He felt his eyes burn next, slow wells of water built up and he shut them quickly. Her voice was weak, echoing in his mind as he remembered all the other ways she'd said his name before but never like this, never desperate. "Tsukasa- please - you're hurting me."_

 _He felt his eyes flash open as he grinned. His red eyes managing to mimick the rage in his mind perfectly. "Good." He pushed her away from him, letting go of her just as she asked with a little too much force as she landed against the wall and he barged out of the room without a second look._

He shook his head – inexplicably the past three weeks had been filled with flashes of Shigeru running through his mind.

Mostly he felt sorry for her as he remembered what Soujiro had told her about Shigeru. Her father's business was crumbling, she was exiled from her family because she'd broken off a rather profitable marriage between the two of them and now apparently she had been working at that diner…he didn't need much more than that to piece together the rest.

Now he just had to find her.

Or ignore her.

But the idea of ignoring her felt wrong and it made his skin crawl uncomfortably like it was covered in ants. In fact, he'd felt uncomfortable since he'd seen her.

She hadn't been wrong in that room, he had needed help. Ironic as it was, it had taken her leaving him for him to go seek the help she'd desired for him and now he felt like he was a in a better place for the most part. He still felt irrational bouts of anger spring up charging his muscles up and preparing him for fights his joints so craved to take part in.

But he could curb those impulses in, he could think rationally – he could remind himself that beyond the next thirty minutes he would regret the decisions he made if he acted on those impulses.

His phone binged breaking him out of his reverie as he slipped into his car and took a look at the message.

 _Please make sure that you are prepared tomorrow with your seal, we will bring ours._ Straight to the point, the Makino princess appeared a little too curt in her message and it made him frown.

 _Okay._ He responded sighing. Tomorrow the paperwork would be finalized. Then her fledgling company with her father would be well and true off their hands.

With the sale complete there would be no reason for him to ever see her again…and the way things were looking it looked like that was exactly what the little Makino wanted despite his best efforts.

"They're meeting again tomorrow to finalize the sale Kaede-san but that's it. There have been no plans to engage in a relationship from our point of view. I've been keeping a very close eye on Domyouji-san's communication with the Makino daughter and it looks like it was a one time occasion."

"Excellent job Sakurako! I'm proud of how far you've come in your assessments!" Kaede grinned brilliantly as her daughter rolled her eyes in front of her. "Thank you for as always being an excellent assistant."

"To who? Doesn't she work for Tsukasa?" Tsubaki remarked as her mother shrugged.

"We are the same employer to Sakurako, Tsubaki, Sakurako works for Domyouji- not one specific person. You are dismissed." Kaede bowed her head towards the young girl who had been working hard to climb the corporate ladder. She'd make sure to tell Nishida to reward her at her upcoming appraisal. Without her help, she would have found it a far more trying exercise to deal with Tsukasa and those country bumpkins.

Honestly, sleeping with the enemy lawyer! He was trying his hardest now to make a mess of his life wasn't he? And on company premises too – like he was trying to slap her in the face – and then he thought he could get away with giving into all of their demands!

Well – if it made sure the girl wouldn't end up coming on their doorstep with a pink stick and a baby carriage in her hand maybe it was worth it. It could all end here if Kaede was smart and patient. She'd already made the two of them feel like they were distant from each other and that was half the battle won if she could keep it that way at their meeting tomorrow.

Sakurako made her way out of the room and Kaede Domyouji savoured her steak which felt particularly delicious today. Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Honestly mother, you have become a control freak. I mean we all knew you were one, but this is a little ridiculous. He's just doing his job. For all you know this could be part of his strategy."

"Tsukasa giving away dollars has never been part of his strategy." Kaede scoffed. "What you call a control freak I call a micromanagement style that has managed to earn both you and I a very esteemed status in this world- and if I can give Tsukasa the same then why wouldn't I?"

"Because we are not robots who follow your every order with no complaints."

"Pity…I really should have adopted. I've heard those kids are more grateful." Appparently this joke did not fly well with her daughter as Kaede laughed. With all this talk of how she was no fun she would have thought the show of humor would have helped. "Tsukasa's always needed a bit more guidance than others- in fact- Nishida?"

"Yes Kaede-sama?" Her assistant spoke up ever faithfully from his perch behind her.

"I'll be dispensing some of this much required guidance in person...please mark Tsukasa's meeting with the Makino family into my calendar. I think it's time I finally met the girl whose been giving him so much trouble." Why her children demonized her Kaede would never know...could they not see the foolish consequences of their own actions?

Regardless, despite herself, Kaede found herself oddly looking forward to meeting Makino Tsukushi. After all, she could respect to some degree the strength with which the female lawyer had strong holded her pitbull of a son into caving into her demands. "Tsubaki?"

"Yes mother?"

"Pass the salt."

"Don't go around burning down houses for no reason."

Kaede laughed, shaking her head as she saw the anxious expression on her daughters face only grow ever more prominent. "My dear, I never start a fire if there's not already smoke."


	13. Chapter 12

new chapter guys! because...CHRISTMAS! Well this is late but you get what I mean

* * *

"Tsukushi…does he normally do this? He's an hour late." Her father whispered into her ear as she looked restlessly at the clock for the umpteenth time this hour. No, Tsukasa Domyouji was prompt to a fault unless he was trying on purpose to make some sort of statement.

A chilling realization ran through her bones as she thought of what possible statements he could be trying to make with his moves today. First she got a text early this morning from the Domyouji secretary Sakurako asking to move her meeting up at the last minute and then he didn't show?

Something was weird all right- but part of her felt like her vision was clouded because it felt like he was doing this because- well – he was saying he didn't have time for her.

That stung.

It wasn't the truth, well, she couldn't decisively say that was why he wasn't here – but based on his behaviour could she think anything else?

What was worse was now she didn't even care about what they'd done but now she cared more that she was appearing like a victim, like a person without a voice, like someone who just passively took his moves and made none of her own. Makino Tsukushi was not that type of girl.

Before she could strategize a move to combat his however, the door to this new meeting room opened. Even Tsukushi could hardly hold her jaw from falling to the floor as she saw who stepped through. Accompanied as expected by an entire entourage, four people to be exact. "Makino-san, I do apologize. I heard my son has been reckless and kept you waiting. I'm sure you can understand he's a very busy man." Kaede Domyouji herself had deemed her, Makino Tsukushi, utterly poor origined and petty common lawyer, worthy of her time?

It seemed almost too good to be true that she'd get to bite into the woman in physical form for all the shit she'd pulled behind her back. All the tricks with the investors, Makino's own boss, her own insecurity god- Makino felt whatever anger she'd had in her heart dissipate – if this was why Domyouji hadn't showed-

Hell she'd thank him and kiss his feet for the opportunity that had been handed to her.

For a moment, she let the silence after her words stall in the room and Kaede Domyouji looked at her expectantly. Makino almost buckled by standing and bowing that full 90 degrees, but this woman was not one she needed to impress. So she grabbed her father's arm to stop him from standing and bowing and maintained her seat as she flashed her a cool, collected smile. "Domyouji-san, thank you for your concern. My client, Makino Haruo, the lead of the Makino Group is here and I'm here as a representative lawyer for the group, its investors and their interests. If you'd like to take your seat we can finally get started."

Whatever the woman had been expecting, it hadn't been that because Kaede blinked dumbly like a fish out of water and then took her seat. It was only for a second though, as soon as she'd sat down her eyes narrowed and she smirked at Makino as if she'd been amused by her impertinence. "Very well then, do you have your seal prepared? I believe my son has done his due diligence in preparing the documentation and in all honesty, I've found the concessions less than desirable but we're willing to let it pass given the unique nature of your business model and your struggles as a financial entity."

Tsukushi could quietly take all the wonderful concessions Tsukasa had given her and walk out of here a happy woman. She knew that was what the purpose of today was and it was easy. The whole process, the time, everything had been planned around a quick legal procedure that would make sure everyone was out of each other's business in record time. "Actually…we came here to propose something else entirely." She kept her face firm as she heard her father start coughing on his water beside her. He was not expecting this…hell neither was she. "How opposed would you be to maintaining the model past the closing period?"

"The closing period is 6-7 months is it not? Is that not suitable for your team? I've heard you're already on the verge of closing sooner given the monetary pressure of the Kyoto opening." She grinned machiavellianly.

Tsukushi was almost stupid enough to call her out on her backhanded actions, but Tsukushi had not gone through years of law school and seen snakes worse than even Kaede Domyouji to falter at a bait like that. "You are correct, but we believe the model holds value to the Domyouji group overall in a way unmatched by the group's current hotel portfolio."

"Humor me…though let me be frank from the outset." At this Kaede Domyouji leaned forward, tapping her red fingernails on the glass table between them. "I do not see why my family would be interested in anything yours would have to offer."

At that, Tsukushi's confidence cracked just a bit. A tiny hairline crack, small enough even an eye with the most perfect of vision would have trouble seeing it. When Tsukushi felt her face fall, she wondered if the woman was speaking about the hotel or if the woman was speaking about her in the context of her idiotic son.

If she could have been angrier at Tsukasa Domyouji she would have managed it, but as it was the moment she saw him she was two insults short of grabbing his little octopus hairs and pulling them out one by one as painfully as she could muster.

A flash ran through her mind of the sound of his breath when she'd done something similar in a not so angry fashion and she flushed red. Okay, maybe that wouldn't be punishment enough – but she would make sure he felt as horrible as she did in this moment, defenseless against his viper of a mother. How could he have left her alone to face this woman?

Then again – she didn't need him!

Suddenly a bulb clicked in her head. He wouldn't leave her alone...hell he couldn't manage to make this woman before her do anything! "It's you, isn't it…?"

"Sorry…?" Kaede exclaimed, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I'm not sure what you're referring to."

"You're the one messing with me! Not him! God he's probably just rolling out of the bath right now isn't he? You moved the meeting up without telling him!" She laughed for a second, surprised at how relieved she felt. If his mother had done that – then – well – she could have done a lot more.

"Makino…" Her father started beside her trying to get her to stop laughing. "Kaede-san, if I may-"

"Please." Her words may have sounded nice but the Domyouji matriarch's tone of voice was anything but. She was obviously losing patience.

"We believe we've really struck a cord with the market with our business model and proposition – to leave it in limbo just when it's about to hit profitiability levels of unprecedented nature since the introduction of home-sharing- well I just need to say that don't I?" Whatever her father had said, he'd managed to play off her sell to Kaede Domyouji…and it seemed to be working.

"Home-sharing?"

"Well you have to know about the home-sharing alternatives that are giving people exactly what they want in a better way than hotels could. Total privacy, local guides that feel local rather than practiced, couches to palaces to dream like vacations your establishment and hell – my establishment would find very very hard to replicate on scale. So we have another proposition for you."

"Another proposition?"

"Yes – we want to continue operating Makino group. We aren't competing with the hotel industry – we're supporting it. We're trying to make it competitive against the pressures it's faced in the market by government entities and citizens like you and me." Tsukushi had to admit as she smiled brightly at her father. She had never heard him sound so brilliant and she knew he had to have practiced this at home. She knew he wasn't going to give up, and she was so proud of him in this moment to see how far he had been able to come. "Let's be honest- the person reserving at your hotel and the person reserving at my hotel they're not the same like you said. You can't imagine being interested in our offerings…well that's just it. There's many more of us than there are of people like you."

Tsukushi's jaw dropped just a little. She was now more than healthily impressed. "The group travel package is just the start, we have other plans – to compete with home-sharing we have investment plans using real-estate to leverage ourselves as a leading acquisition firm ourselves. Building a travel empire is no easy feat and if you're open to it...we'd like to work with you as partners by selling you 52% of our company."

"Controlling share?" Kaede raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Well…it's better than selling you all of our company." Makino Haruo forlorned. "We are now in a desperate position, you should know that better than anyone else." He left the remainder of his words unsaid as he leaned forward. "Do not be blinded by prejuidice and fear Kaede-san, embrace different – it'll take you places. I promise you. It's brought me, a humble accountant, here- in front of you on my own two feet as a man proud to showcase my work."

Tsukushi took a deep breath as she saw Kaede Domyouji's eyes flicker to her and she tutted softly and sucked in a breath as she looked backwards at her own personal lawyer. "Hiroshi…could you draft up some revised agreements?"

Tsukushi let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as Kaede leaned out a hand to her father. "One year…one year Haruo-san. Turn me a profit beyond your wildest dreams and we can talk about where your fantasies can go."

The smile on her father's face was so infectious Tsukushi found herself smiling brightly at Kaede as a loud bang echoed in the room and everyone collectively looked up to see a red-faced, sweaty Tsukasa Domyouji who had obviously appeared to run into the room.

Tsukushi could barely hold back the giggles in her chest. He looked like a tomato. It was hard not to laugh as he huffed and puffed like an over-sized gorilla.

"Tsukasa…can we help you with something?" His mother asked eloquently, obviously unfazed by his sudden appearance though Tsukushi was sure that she hadn't intended for him to join the meeting.

"Sure…what the fuck is going on here?"

"I wanted to meet the Makino family on my own – assess their worth beyond your legal measurements." Kaede's tone was chastising, the type a mother bites through to her son when she was a discussion to end quickly.

"Fat chance. You wanted to size something up alright but it wasn't the family." The surprising honesty from his mouth left everyone a little startled. "You wanted to see what a big hit your wallet was going to take." He took his seat across from Tsukushi gruffly pushing Hiroshi out of the way. "So where were we?"

"We were merging for 52%, extending closing cycle to 1 year with monetary support from the Domyouji group." Tsukushi interjected blinking quickly as a means of avoiding his gaze as it wandered onto her. She busied herself with the papers below her. "These papers are now invalid but-"

"Hiroshi-?" Kaede called out and magically a new set of papers appeared before her. "My one stipulation is we sign today. Is that favourable?"

Her father had the seal out before Makino could scream but thankfully Tsukasa grabbed the papers from Hiroshi's hands and passed them towards her. As it was, her father had behaved professionally enough for the day but she couldn't believe he would just blindly sign papers like that. Then again there was a reason she spent most of her teenage years working more than two part-time jobs. "Please review them to your satisfaction over the next few minutes." Tsukasa spoke up, hands folded in front of him.

"I'd need at least a day-" Makino was praying her wish would be granted but even she knew it was too good to be true.

"You get 30 minutes." He pulled out his cellphone pretending to look very busy and Makino couldn't help but feel annoyed as she grumbled looking at the papers as much as she could in the few minutes afforded to her.

About 10 minutes in however a distraction presented itself as she felt the skin on her legs tingle with a sensation that felt very recognizable. She felt her eyebrows jump up to her forehead as she gulped nervously. Was that-

Yes...that was Domyouji's leg grazing hers ever so slightly. She lifted her gaze to connect with his but he was looking at his phone. It was then she decided to passively glance at her phone and she realized he wasn't just looking at his phone. He'd been sending her messages.

 _Trust me. You don't want her to change her mind._

 _This is a really good deal._

 _I'm looking over Hiroshi's notes and I think we can add some clauses about what to do if this goes south?_

 _By the way…aren't those the same shoes and stockings you were wearing last time?_

 _Was that gulp for me? :P_

And then there was one last message that came in as she finished reading the others. _Look up._

When she did she found herself faltering as he smiled brightly at her, his face in one hand like a besotted boy and she found herself flushing red and immediately looking down to her papers which were far safer and brought out less of an easy-to-read emotional response from her.

When the time had passed and they signed the papers with both her father and his mother grinning widely at each other Tsukushi could only regret that she hadn't read the papers closer.

Tsukasa had played incessantly with her legs the entire time.

The rest of the lawyers, businessmen and women filed out of the room but they stayed within, alone. She put herself to work arranging her files into her briefcase as he walked over to her. "Hey."

How unclimactic. How sad. How depressing. 'Hey'. With the dramatic entrance he'd made before she had to say she was left feeling a bit lacklustre that this was the first thing he said to her now that they were alone and out of earshot of his mother and her team, not to mention her own father."That's your greeting?" She scoffed.

He was bashful, rubbing the back of his head in a manner that was uncannily teenager and she felt her heart soar in her chest in an unrecognizable fashion. She couldn't possibly find this attractive...could she? "What can I say? I didn't master in Introductions 101."

 _Get away quick Tsukushi! Quick!_ She yelled in her mind. "Might have been more useful." She started to walk out when he grabbed her wrist rather callously and pulled her back shutting the door before she could escape away. This afforded them the utmost privacy but at a very risky cost.

Upon seeing her expression on being manhandled he immediately raised his hands defensively. "Sorry, I just-" He wasn't quite sure what to say next and the silence stood for exactly three seconds before Tsukushi made her move to leave again just barely catching the soft words leaving his mouth. "Don't leave like that."

"Look- I'm very aware of the precarious position of this acquisition and I don't want to do anything to mess it up." It appeared her words had irritated him because he backed away from her leaning against the table.

"You mean- you don't want ME to do anything to mess it up." He gruffly remarked shrugging. "Fine. Go." Seeing him so distant from her broke the hairline fracture his mother had built up in the wall around her and she groaned.

"No Domyouji Tsukasa-san, I mean I don't want _**me**_ to do anything to mess it up with you." She stressed pointing at herself and saw him blink, expressionless at first. Then, a smile broke out on his face. It was the largest, truest most genuine smile she'd ever seen from him. In fact, seeing him smile like that at her was making her immediately regret her decision to say anything at all. "Stop smiling."

"I think that's the closest you've come to saying it." He stood up from the table and came up to her with each step slowly but surely making sure she was backed up against the door.

This was a position she was becoming entirely too comfortable in. "Saying what?" She fumbled half hoping that they would make a mess of everything, her brain would shut off and she would act purely on impulse and make her fingers work to rip his expensive shirt.

He leaned forward, his breath landing on her cheek as he peered into her eyes. His hands pushed hair behind her ears and then he leaned down ever so carefully-

"Saying what makes you want to mess up. Saying that you want-" He whispered to her ear then paused to look between them, the rest of his words unsaid but not unheard.

He stepped back from her and pulled forward to open the door walking past her. Tsukushi could feel her heart hammer away in her chest.

Whatever she'd expected from today.

This whole ordeal had not been it.

Her family was now for all intents and purposes- married to his for the next year.

And his mother had made it very obvious what she thought of her.

And she was scared that she had made it very obvious just how vulnerable she really was.


	14. Chapter 13

Soujiro stretched his neck as he walked out of the marbled elevator entrance to the Golden Orchid hostess bar. Today had been an exercise and part of him wasn't entirely sure this was the best way for him to unwind his stress, but it was the best distraction. Nothing numbed his emotions like a particularly beautiful girl and fountains of liquor.

As he walked into the bar, he found his eyes scanning the room for the milky skinned innocent girl who had wormed her way into this bar with no ambitions other than to earn her probably generous salary given she did nothing the other girls did. She didn't sleep around, she didn't simper and laugh, she didn't mix her words up, and provided what he was sure was crackpot psycho-analyses on her customers.

Sure, there were probably guys that enjoyed that when they came here, and they probably enjoyed being ripped out for a complete stranger to see all of their insecurities but Soujiro- no he was going to be more careful. He was going to avoid her, that was the only reason he always tried to find her first. Though even he had to admit there was something very magnetic about her uncensored behaviour.

He was a little bit surprised to find her behind the bar today, laughing away beside the male bartender as she shoved his shoulder playfully.

Ah, so was that her scene then? Good for her, she should be fired for so blatantly flaunting real emotions where fake ones were on sale.

For now though he'd stay out of her way, and hoped she'd stay out of his. _Are you coming?_ He quickly texted his best friend. Akira, ever so reliable Akira, replied in less than 30 seconds.

 _I'll drop by for a second. Is Yuki there?_

He felt his eyebrow twitch. _Yes._

 _Call her over for me? I'll be there in 10._ He felt the frown deepen on his mouth as he sighed and walked over to usual booth. "Mama-san, can you send Yuki over?" He was upset, entirely too visibly so. His hands were tightened on themselves so his knuckles ran a pale white and he tapped his fingers impatiently against the wood of the table.

After he'd spent so much time painstakingly avoiding her in a few moments Yuki had approached him, smiling as she sat down beside him. "Well, this was unexpected. I didn't think you liked me very much."

"Akira asked for you to be here when he gets here." A strange sort of knowing came on her face as she smirked to herself and he found himself entirely feeling unprepared for the rough way his stomach tousled itself. "What is that for?"

"What is what for?" She replied and he scoffed. Who the hell was she trying to fool here? That! That weird lip twerk where her teeth shined brilliantly for the idea of Akira being here.

"Is something going on between Akira and you?"

"Sure there is! Why else would he call me here?" She accepted his accusation so easily with not a care for the connotations it held which just proved to him that she was making a mockery of his question.

"You're not like the other girls though." He insisted.

"What does that mean?"

Oh now she wanted him to come out and say it? "You don't sell what they're selling." She burst out laughing.

"Oh dear god, you mean- yeah no. I admit it I don't, not that I care. To each woman her own as long as she's safe and secure and understanding of her situation." She reached for the waiter and pulled him aside. "A rum and cola, and what will you have?"

"Gin and tonic." He slipped and looked around aware that the rest of the girls were surprised he hadn't asked one of his regulars to join them. A silence came between them until the drinks came and Soujiro was happy to occupy his throat with the rough taste of his gin instead of speaking to Yuki.

 _Dude, where are you?_ He texted. He needed him to come soon. Akira would be like a life raft in this strange conversation.

 _Sorry man, Riku needed me to pick her up from the dorm. She's throwing up. Idiot, can I come in a bit? Keep her there for me!_

Right, Akira's twin sisters. He had to admit they'd grown up beautifully but even he had to say they were complete brats…and much like Yuki they weren't exactly his cup of tea. So the fact that one had distracted his friends only served to fuel the irritation from his long day. "So this is nice and all…but maybe we should…talk?"

"Don't even suggest it." He grumbled. He was going to be very careful with her. "Talking to you is dangerous, like giving you ammunition to make proclamations about someone that no one asked for."

"Oh you mean, that thing where I mentioned that you pay for things you want to hear because you don't have real friends? Don't worry you proved me wrong." She snickered obviously very pleased with herself that she'd managed to get under his skin."Your friends love and care for you a lot."

"Well…we weren't raised by our parents for sure. We raised each other. So a part of us lives within each other." He found his shoulders relaxing just for a second as he leaned against the booth. "God that sounds so fucking gay."

"Only if you want it to be." She teased shaking her head and he was surprised to find that he laughed a little at her joke. God that wasn't even that funny. Get your head together Soujiro. "So- how was work today?"

"And why should I tell you?"

"Do you have anything to lose?" She looked visibly perturbed that he had said that which he supposed was a little too defensive even for him. "Look, I can go back to the bar-"

"No- look I'm sorry." Yuki opened her eyes wide as she blinked quickly. "Work was fine. Work was work. Work is challenging and difficult and so I come here to forget it mostly." This was easy to admit. This was true for all hostess club guests...what ammunition could she have against him with this claim that she didn't already have from her other clients?

"Well is it at least going well?" She asked back kindly willing to forget his previous prickly disposition.

"Some days sure." He agreed. "These days more often than not it's the other way around." Yuki appeared to be observing him closely.

"Well…then we'll get your mind off it. What's your favourite colour?"

At that, he felt a more throaty chuckle escape his throat. "And what is the purpose of that?"

"I want to get to know you." She smiled at him kindly and not for the first time Soujiro wondered how much of her smile was real.

 _Sorry Soujiro….I don't think I'm making it today._

"Green." He replied as he put his phone away. His mind was reeling at whether he was making the right choice by letting her stay here. What was the harm really? Maybe if they could keep it to safe topics. Maybe if he tried to make it so he never tried to make her say something for him...maybe then he could stand her. "My favourite colour is green."

What harm could little Yuki cause anyways?

"Who the hell do you think you are that you can just call me out whenever you want?! Why did you call me here?" Tsukushi banged her fists down on the table as soon as she saw the man who had very rudely texted her.

 _Come to Royal Afternoon Tea House in Ginza and ask for the back room. Now._

She was absolutely seething as she saw Domyouji Tsukasa laughing away with his friend at a table with an extremely large array of dim sum. His friend's eyebrows shot into his overly large bangs as he looked between the two of them grinning.

Tsukasa appeared completely undisturbed by her rough behaviour and began to innocently point at his friend. "Akira wanted to meet you." He shrugged. "And we were meeting for lunch...and I thought you'd be hungry. Dim Sum?"

"Well anyone who could deal with you-" Akira started snickering as he stood up and held his hand out rather politely. "Makino Tsukushi-san it's an absolute pleasure."

"Thank you?" She gingerly replied her eyes flickering between the two boys. "So what is this?"

"We're having lunch. I thought this would be a good excuse for me to feed you. I repeat myself again...Dim Sum?" He reached up towards her arm and pulled her down to the chair beside him as she roughly landed on the wooden chair.

"Man, you just push and pull me around. Am I your monkey or something?" She grumbled as she took her coat off and put it on the chair.

There was an eerie silence on the table until Domyouji in a very childish tone added. "Well you're the one who said it." He was smiling so wide Tsukushi kicked him roughly under the table. She was so satisfied to see his face fall that she decided she would reward herself with a pork soup dumpling on his far right by the window. "So you're staying?"

"That's what you wanted wasn't it?" She managed to mutter out through large chews. "The pleasure's all mine Akira-san." She added offhandedly remembering she didn't acknowledge the man's introduction well.

Akira leaned back as he observed the dynamic of watching Makino Tsukushi eat practically everything on the table in record time and was even shocked to see Tsukasa reach for a few pieces and put them on her plate as she glared at him.

It had been a few weeks now that his best friend had become completely obsessed with the lawyer who was beside him and Akira couldn't quite fathom why.

She was pretty, he supposed. But not overly so.

She was smart, he was sure. You didn't become a lawyer without a brain but- still.

He supposed in the end it was Makino Tsukushi's confidence that made her attractive to Tsukasa. He'd always fallen like a rock for women who were sure of themselves, women who emulated his own beautiful sister.

Which he supposed at the end of the day was all Tsukasa really ever wanted from a partner. Another Tsubaki. "So it looks like your negotiations wrapped up rather neatly if the two of you could stand to sit here eating with each other." Akira added after a second, surprised at how happily Tsukasa launched into a rather detailed overview of their last meeting.

"I was rather surprised at how eloquent your father was actually." Tsukasa finished looking at the girl beside him with a smile on his face.

"Yeah well…your mom wasn't a hard sell." Tsukushi agreed. "I was shocked she didn't shut him down."

"I like to think I did some pre-work there. I did suggest multiple times they not just shut you down out and out."

"Yes, everything is thanks to you. All praise all mighty Domyouji-sama." The sarcasm in her voice was too much, even Akira couldn't stop laughing.

"Well as long as you acknowledge that." He grinned happily as Makino lifted a bowl of soup and gulped down the remnants of the bowl wiping her mouth haphazardly.

"I'm done here. Is there anything else or can I get back to my job?"

"I'm starting to think that's your excuse for everything." He huffed. "I thought you were quitting."

"I sure am trying…they just won't let me go. Thanks for the lunch!" She swung her purse over her shoulders. "You know the next time you want me to come somewhere…you could text nicer."

"I thought you said you like it when I'm -"

"Shut…up." She looked threateningly at him. "Sorry for my curt behaviour Akira-san, but what can I say? Present company, excluding yourself, really does bring out the worst in me."

"I won't hold it against you." He agreed kindly. Surprised by how easy it was even in these few minutes to talk to the girl.

Tsukasa waved at her as she furrowed her eyebrows confused as she backed away from the room satiated. Once she was safely out of their room, Tsukasa turned to look at him with eyes so wide Akira was sure they would fall out of his head. "So…what do you think of her?" Tsukasa leaned forward excitedly like he was a middle school boy about to share all of his feelings on his new crush.

Akira tightened his smile on his face and put his thumbs up. "She eats a lot! She's- real- healthy!"

"Right?! She fed me once. She also picked out my meal at breakfast and you know there was this one time when -"

Akira pondered interrupting his friend and letting him know that Tsukasa was indeed dating his sister for all intents on purposes but decided to withhold this information for now after observing the look of pure elation on his face. Thankfully, Tsukasa decided to end his tirade of Tsukushi worship himself. "So, I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me how to find her?"

"Your girlfriend? Just call her. She appears like a genie when you text apparently." He teased. It felt weird to say that now. All of them had been single for so many months now with no stable relationship. He'd just kind of supposed it would stay that way but Makino Tsukushi he had to admit was poised to change all of that. He'd only once before seen Tsukasa this besotted, and it had taken him five years of juvenile behaviour to work up to that emotion with Shigeru.

Surprisingly becoming serious he saw Tsukasa shake his head. "Please, Makino Tsukushi is not my girlfriend…and you and I know both know I don't mean her."

"She's not?" Akira tried to deflect. It appeared the little Domyouji heir did not grasp himself the depth of his feelings for the girl which was more than amusing for Akira. He wouldn't bother enlightening him, Tsukasa would realize in his own time. Tsukasa didn't say anything as Akira sighed. "Why do you want to meet Shigeru?"

"I deserve a sit down with the woman who literally ran away from me and ended up ruining her own life."

"Hey man, you said it yourself. She ruined her life. Don't you think she's been through enough?" If there was someone Akira pitied in their whole situation it was Shigeru but he knew that Tsukasa didn't see it that way. How could he? He was abandoned, he felt hurt, betrayed, and cast aside by the Okawahara princess.

"No!" Tsukasa faked shock. "Please remind me of all the horrible things that happened to the woman who literally fucked up every good thing I had going in my life for no good reason."

"Tsukasa-" Akira warned. He had a habit of doing this. Seeing things from a narrow point of view where everything except his opinion was invalid. He didn't see the reasons why Shigeru broke up with him, even if he did address them. "You know she's not doing well. So what are you going to do when you meet her? Flaunt that you fixed the problems she found in you? Show off that you're the one in better shape? That you're not angry, that you're successful now, that you have a girl who embraces all of that in you? Albeit from what I see a little weirdly?"

"Hell yeah! Is that really so bad?" Tsukasa joked but at Akira's serious expression sighed leaning back.

"Grow up Tsukasa." He sighed. "Her father had to sell their family home to keep their company running, they live in a small house outside of the suburbs. For all intents and purposes yes she's the same person she was – her father's princess daughter but the Okawahara group has been through a tough time. The political blackmail scandal that I'm sure your mother had absolutely no hand in-"

"Akira- please." Tsukasa pushed his head in his hand. "I don't-I'm not done. I need to be done. I can't be done unless I see her."

How could Akira tell him? How could Akira tell Tsukasa this was the worst idea? How could he tell him that it took him months to get over Shigeru the last time? "And you think you'll be fine? You think it's done?" This was the closest he could get without being obvious. Though he was sure this would fly over the Domyouji boy's stubborn head.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Akira wasn't sure if he was being naïve or overly optimistic. Maybe it was a combination of both. How did one feel when they were left at the altar?

Then again, maybe he was selling his friend short. Maybe he was fine now. Maybe he wouldn't self-destruct and try to kill everything in his sight. "Okay." He whipped out his phone.

Tsukasa was confused until he heard his phone ring and then looked at the address on his phone. "What is this?"

"This, my friend, is the club she works at. Go. Meet her. Figure it out. Whatever it is you want to do to her. Just one more question…" Akira felt an evil plan come up in his mind. Oh, how fun it was to play with Tsukasa!

"What's that?"

"Does that mean Makino's free for a date tonight?"

"Akira. I swear to god, do you have a death wish?"


End file.
